The  Walking  Doll  ; 


OB, 


THE  ASTERS  AND  DISASTERS  OF  SOCIETY. 


By    R.    H.    NEWELL, 

AUTHOR  OF   "THE  ORPHEUS  C.   KERR  PAPERS,"   "AVERT  GLIBtTN,"   "THE  CLOVEN 
FOOT,"    "VERSATILITIES."   ETC, 


^ 


Q 

4 


PTew  Yoj\k  : 
FRANCIS   B.  FELT  &  COMPANY, 

91    MERCER   STREET. 

1872. 


<\ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1871,  by 

FRANCIS  B.  FELT  &  COMPANY, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


EDWARD. 0.  JENKINS. 
rRINTER  AND  STEREOTYPER, 
NO.  20  N.  WILLIAM  STREET,  N.  Y. 


PREFACE. 


Tlie  "  Great  American  Novel "  has  been  long  expected 
by  the  Critics,  who 

1 ' in  their  foolishness, 

Passion  and  mulishness," 

have  dictated  that  it  shall  possess  and  rival  all  the  worst 
beanties  of  Dickens,  Beade,  "Wilkie  Collins,  Thackeray, 
and  Miss  Braddon. 

Well — here  it  is  !  o.  c.  k. 


mS.127-1  I 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 
All  about  a  Watch-you-may-call-it 9 

CHAPTER   JI. 
The  Watch  a  Duplex  Lever 20 

CHAPTER   III. 
A  Glimpse  of  the  Skeleton 28 

CHAPTER   IV. 
The  Mystery  of  the  Walking  Doll 34 

CHAPTER  V. 
Come  Wheel,  Come  "  Whoa  " 40 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Rung  and  Rank 50 

CHAPTER   VII. 
The  new  Finn  of  Dapple  &  Co 61 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
Dollie's  Confession 68 

CHAPTER   IX. 

The  Circumambient  Heir , 74 

(5) 


6  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    X. 
Stepmother,  Sire,  and  Son 82 

CHAPTER   XI. 
Tedium  Lardnerous 90 

CHAPTER   XII. 
The  Chivalry  of  Physic 100 

CHAPTER    XIII. 
An  Appeal  unto  Caesar 107 

CHAPTER   XIV. 
In  Two  Rooms 114 

CHAPTER   XV. 
Great  Demoralization  of  Jack  Aster,  Drayman 123 

CHAPTER  XVI. 
Sweetheart  and  Cousin 134 

CHAPTER   XVII. 
The  Story  of  the  Walking  Doll 140 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 
A  Convert  from  Rascality 146 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
One  of  the  Three  Comes  in 156 

CHAPTER  XX. 
Mrs.  Dedley  can  not  Forget 165 

CHAPTER   XXI. 
Aster-risks  on  Ice 172 

CHAPTER   XXII. 
The  Owner  of  the  Watch 186 


CONTENTS.  7 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 
Mother  and  Son 194 

CHAPTER    XXIV. 
Mr.  Stalker  is  finally  Dismissed 202 

CHAPTER  XXV. 
A  few  Canary  seeds  of  Comfort 210 

CHAPTER  XXVI. 
A  Man  and  Men 217 

CHAPTER  XXVII. 
Another  of  the  Three  Comes  in 232 

CHAPTER  XXVIII. 
The  Stepmother-Tongue 240 

CHAPTER    XXIX. 
Toyman  and  Drayman 249 

CHAPTER  XXX. 
In  a  Box  at  the  Opera 256 

CHAPTER  XXXI. 
Mrs.  Dedley  asks  for  Instructions 267 

CHAPTER  XXXII. 
Sacrifice  of  the  Walking  Doll 273 

CHAPTER  XXXIH. 
Doctor  Canary's  Dream 281 

CHAPTER  XXXIV. 
Mad  at  Last 285 

CHAPTER   XXXV. 
The  Stepbrothers ,288 


8  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XXXVI. 
"  Good-bye,  Gen'ral " 296 

CHAPTER    XXXVII. 
Returned  to  Iris  Relatives 302 

CHAPTER    XXXVIII. 
The  Curse  of  the  Walking  Doll 309 

CHAPTER    XXXIX. 
News  in  Lardner  Place 321 

CHAPTER  XL. 
Danforth 327 

CHAPTER    XLI. 
The  Half-brothers 338 

CHAPTER    XLII. 
The  Last  of  the  Three  Comes  in 345 

CHAPTER    XLIII. 
Don't  you  see  how  it  was  ? 355 

CHAPTER  XLIV. 
Love  pays  for  all 374 

CHAPTER  XLV. 
And  down  comes  the  Curtain 385 


THE  WALKING  BOLL. 


i. 


ALL   ABOUT   A  WATCH-YOTJ-MAY-CALL-IT. 

CALL  it  half-past  Two,  post-meridian,  when  Chatham 
Square,  New  York,  in  the  vicinity  of  that  stroke  of 
architectural  humor  formerly  known  by  gilt  letter  legend, 
as  the  Department  of  Finance,  was  happily  relieved  of 
its  horse-car  monotony  by  the  advent  of  a  pageant.  The 
latter  consisted  of  a  moire-antique  horse  of  the  severest 
Doric  build,  fluttering  a  whole  girlhood  of  gay  ribbons 
from  his  harness ;  a  long,  low  wagon,  which  might  have 
been  accredited  to  the  Fashionable-Undertaker's  school 
but  for  the  extremely  crimson  liveliness  of  its  panels ; 
and  a  freight  of  two  Dramatic  Impersonations,  a  theatri- 
cal ducal-chair  in  purple  and  silver,  and  a  kind  of  boxed 
table,  or  pulpit,  draped  with  gold -laced  green.  Seated 
in  the  ducal  chair,  with  back  to  steed  and  face  to  boxed 
table,  was  an  impressive  middle-aged  version  of  Hamlet, 
clad  in  the  plumed  mourning-hat,  and  cloaky  mourning- 
tongs  style  of  costume,  in  which  popular  actors  generally 
solemnize  the  melancholy  prince  of  Schleswig-Holstein. 
Behind  him,  and  driving  the  ribboned  horse  at  a  slow, 
majestic  pace,  stood  the  other  Dramatic  Impersonation, 
who,  though,  attired  in  the  livery-overcoat  and  laced 
cocked  hat  of  an  Italian  cardinal's  footman,  was  as  pal- 
pable an  Irishman  as  ever  whacked  hurroo. 

I*  (9) 


10  ALL    ABOUT   A   WATCH- YOTJ-M AY-CALL-IT. 

Taken  altogether,  the-  pageant  was  a  sensation,  even  for 
a  Square  in  which  the  four-wheeled  canvas  temple  of 
Try  Skinner's   Instantaneous   Paint  Wash   was  a  daily 
complication  with  the  horse- cars,  and  Mr.  Editor  Gree- 
ley's celebrated  original  dressing  of  Romeo,  a  weekly  hint 
that  "Now  Is  The  Time  To  Subscribe."     Shabby  old 
men  paused  on  the  sidewalks  to  gaze  at  it ;  spruce  young 
fellows  stepped  briskly  toward  it  from  the  curb,  to  utter 
aloud  such  witticisms  as  women  never  understand  at  all, 
and  always  laugh  at ;  old  ladies  with  baskets,  and  young 
ones  with  parasols,  walked  into  Returned  Veteran  apple- 
stands,  and  affronted  foreign  Hot  Roast  Chestnut  men, 
in  attempting  to  look  at  it  in  one  direction,  and  glide 
away  from  it  in  another ;  gentlemen  of  poll-parrot  aspect 
as  to  their  noses,  and  Biblical  flavor  as  to  the  names  upon 
their  sign-boards,  swarmed  forth  from  fifty  haunts  of 
second-hand  attire,  suspenders,  and  pawn-brokerage,  \o 
stare   at   it   with    Hebrew  intensity;    while    Youngest 
America  (which  freely  ranges  along  the  Square,  from 
the  Pious  Little  Boot -black  of   the  Boston   Tract  for 
Boys,  to  the  junior  heir  of  the  tailor-prince,)  boldly  fol- 
lowed close  at  the  tail  of  the  crimson  car,  vivaciously 
exchanging  compliments  in  that  occult  language  of  un- 
intelligible sounds,  which  is  also  a  popular  medium  for 
the  ideas  of  firemen,  Macbeth's  stage-army,  and  any  two 
colloquial  hackmen  who  chance  to  get  their  wheels  lock- 
ed in  a  jam. 

What  time  he  of  Denmark,  in  his  ducal  chair,  con- 
templated, with  studious  abstraction,  a  human  skull, 
which  he  poised  in  one  hand,  and  thoughtfully  tapped 
with  a  flute  held  in  the  other.  What  time  he  of  the 
cocked  hat  stolidly  held  telegraphic  communication,  as  it 
were,  through  the  lines,  with  the  Doric  horse,  and  ma- 


ALL   ABOUT   A   WATCH- YOU-H  AY-CALL-IT.  11 

jestically  advised  the  latter  of  such  turns  as  passing 
affairs  seemed  likely  to  take.  Arriving,  however,  at  the 
centre  of  a  long  cross-walk  in  the  widest  part  of  the 
Square,  the  animal  was  telegraphed  to  take  no  further 
steps  in  the  matter  at  present ;  and,  of  course,  stopped 
proceedings :  whereupon  he  of  the  cocked  hat  suddenly 
leaped  from  the  wagon  to  the  ground,  briskly  drew  out  a 
pin  here  and  bolt  there,  and  caused  the  sides  and  ends  of 
the  vehicle  to  flap  down  outwardly  like  so  many  leaves 
of  a  table.  Thus  the  wagon  was  transformed  into  a  trim 
platform,  not  unlike  the  ingenious  combination  of  dis- 
guised candle-boxes,  upon  which  the  Duke  of  Mantua 
occasionally  sits  enthroned  at  a  Bowery  play-house, 
when  the  robustious  drama  of  that  side  of  the  town 
gives  the  Orange  Girl  of  Italy,  as  a  final  bridge  between 
the  last  Sailor's  Hornpipe  and  breakfast-time.  Thus  the 
scene  was  prepared  for  Hamlet,  who,  after  rising  slowly 
from  his  chair  of  state,  placing  the  skull  (which,  by  the 
by,  was  remarkable  for  its  splendid  teeth)  upon  the 
boxed  table,  and  bowing  profoundly  to  the  gathering 
throng  about  the  wheels,  adjusted  his  flute  to  his  lips 
and  struck  into  what — the  flute  being  a  wind  instrument 
— might  be  termed  a  blustering  air.  It  was  an  air  from 
Venice  as  affected  by  the  Carnival,  tempered  by  a  zephyr 
of  Yankee  Doodle,  and  a  slight  breeze  of  Old  Dog  Tray ; 
not  to  speak  of  a  casual  gale  of  Captain  Jinks,  momen- 
tary gusts  of  Come  Rest  in  this  Bosom,  and  fragmentary 
north-easter  whiffs  of  Rip,  Snap,  set  'em  Up  Again.  It 
was,  in  short,  just  such  an  air  as  your  fashionable  young 
unmarried  friend  shall  frantically  scratch  out  of  her 
grand  Steinway  for  you  on  a  summer  night,  and  ask  you 
to  credit  as  Those  Evening  Bells. 

Thoroughly  blown  by  this  performance,  Hamlet  rested 


12  ALL   ABOUT   A    WATCH-YOU-MAT-C ALL-IT. 

again  in  his  chair,  under  the  sarcastic  congratulations  of 
the  mob,  the  while  his  attendant  in  the  cocked  hat,  who 
had  remounted  the  wagon,  opened  a  drawer  in  the  table 
from  which  sundry  small  round  boxes  were  handed  by 
him  to  a  place  of  display  near  the  skull ;  the  while  Ham- 
let's long  black  locks,  foxy  little  eyes,  sharp  red  nose, 
and  grizzled  cheeks  and  chin,  attracted  the  particular  at- 
tention of  one  of  the  shabby  old  men  who  had  paused  to 
note  his  progress  from  the  nearer  sidewalk. 

Not  a  very  old  man,  either,  when  your  second  glance 
was  corrected  by  the  sudden  energy  which  seemed  almost 
to  straighten  the  earlier  deep  stoop  of  his  shoulders,  and 
light  a  painful  youth  in  the  eyes  behind  his  silver  spec- 
tacles, as  he  glared  with  increasing  attention  at  the 
mountebank.  His  light  hair — quite  flaxen — looked  the 
lighter  for  its  liberal  admixture  of  gray,  and  his  shaggy 
eyebrows  to  match  gave  an  old  and  gnarly  aspect  to  a 
countenance  much  seamed  and  drawn  about  the  brow 
and  mouth  ;  but,  as  his  seedy  figure  involuntarily  straight- 
ened while  he  stared,  and  he  finally  stepped  quickly 
across  the  intervening  cobble-stones,  toward  the  object  of 
his  curiosity  (if  that  was  his  emotion),  there  were  an  elas- 
ticity and  alertness  of  demeanor  and  movement  which 
suggested  but  forty-five  years,  at  the  most,  to  critical  cal- 
culation. 

Not  heeding  his  especial  scrutinize!*,  the  mountebank 
presently  arose  from  the  chair  once  more,  and  laid  aside 
the  flute  for  the  skull ;  the  cardinal's  footman  simultane- 
ously spreading  across  the  front  of  his  gaudy  table  a 
white  banner,  or  poster,  upon  which  was  inscribed  :  "  Dr. 
Canary,  Odontolator  to  the  Civilized  Universe." 

The  various  exact  imitations  of  ironical  canary-bird 
notes  elicited  from  the  crowd  by  this  revelation,  did  not 


ALL   ABOUT   A   WATCH-YOTT-MAY-CALL-IT.  13 

disturb  the  gravity  of  Dr.  Canary,  who,  with  his  twink- 
ling eyes  fixed  upon  the  grinning  relic  of  mortality  in 
his  left  hand,  began,  in  ringing  treble  tones,  the  follow- 
ing astonishing  address : 

1 '  Alas,  poor  Yorick  !     Friends,  I  knew  him  well, 
Of  all  your  diners-out  the  greatest  swell. 
'  Twas  his  to  set  the  table  in  a  roar, 
Where  graver  wisdom  had  been  deem'd  a  bore ; 
To  make  the  laugh  attend  each  sally,  quite 
As  good  digestion  waits  on  appetite, 
And  cause  good-humor's  wholesome  sauce  to  mend 
What  in  the  viands  else  should  health  offend. 
Aye,  there's  the  rub !  as  you  will  understand 
From  this  sad  mortal  remnant  in  my  hand. 
See  how  the  Teeth,  when  all  the  rest  is  dust, 
Still  keep  unsullied  their  enamel'd  crust. 
He  whom  this  skull  once  served  as  inner  head, 
Knew  good  digestion  from  good  Teeth  is  bred, 
And  in  digestion's  perfect  work  the  mind's 
Inherent  brightness  greater  brightness  finds  ; 
So,  to  elude  dyspepsia,  bane  of  wit, 
(And  Teeth  imperfect  ever  hasten  it,) 
The  Great  Canary's  potent  aid  he  sought, 
And  of  Canary  Dental  Powder  bought, 
Plung'd  in  his  mouth  the  brush  well  sprinkled  o'er, 
And  made  his  molars  white  for  ever  more ! 
Thence  did  his  eating  bud  into  an  art, 
That,  through  the  stomach,  strengthen'd  mind  and  heart ; 
Thence  did  his  sallies  greater  zest  afford 
Than  Yankee  envoy's  at  St.  James's  board. 
Nor  ever,  from  the  dawn  of  morning  light 
Until  the  very  witching  hour  of  night, 
Did  he  forget  to  whom  the  praise  was  due, — • 
The  very  man  who  now  addresses  you ! 
Behold  the  skull!     And,  live  you  slow  or  fast, 
To  this  complexion  must  you  come  at  last  : 
Your  eyes,  your  nose,  your  lips  and  cheeks  decay; 


14  ALL   ABOUT   A   WATCH-YOTJ-MAY-CALL-IT. 

But,  by  my  Powder,  save  your  Teeth  you  may, 
That,  when  your  skull,  like  this,  is  held  to  view, 
Men,  seeing  Them,  may  feel  respect  for  You !" 

As  it  is  absolutely  necessary  for  all  poetry  to  be  pub- 
lished in  Boston  before  the  discriminating  American 
mind  can  see  anything  in  it,  this  toothsome  epic  did  not 
evoke  all  that  popular  enthusiasm  which  one  of  Mr.  Long- 
fellow's "New  England  Tragedies,"  or  a  few  readings  of 
Emerson's  mystical  poem  on  The  Wood  -Louse,  might 
have  excited.  Still,  there  was  some  emotion  in  the 
crowd,  several  critics  loudly  inquiring  how  much  such 
"  cackle"  was  worth  per  yard,  and  whether  it  would 
wash  ;  and  Dr.  Canary  followed  up  his  metrical  hit  by 
grandiloquently  urging  some  victim  of  dental  neglect  to 
take  a  seat  in  the  chair  and  have  the  virtues  of  the  won- 
derful Powder  illustrated  in  his  case  gratuitously.  To 
pick  out  a  particularly  striking  example,  the  mounte- 
bank now  scanned  the  upturned  faces  around  him  with 
especial  care,  and  was  thus  led  to  catch  the  intent  gaze 
of  the  shabby  man  before  mentioned.  As  he  did  so,  a 
sudden  frowning  sharpness  came  into  his  look,  then  a 
sinister  kind  of  grin,  and  he  appealed  directly  to  that 
person. 

"Why,  how  are  you,  sir?"  cried  he,  nodding  and 
smirking.  "  I  have  some  recollection  of  you  from  old 
times,  I'm  sure.  Just  oblige  an  old  friend,  won't  you,  by 
stepping  up  here  for  a  moment  and  giving  me  another 
look  at  a  set  of  teeth  that  would  be  the  fortune  of  many 
a  young  fellow — 

Of  all  the  charms  that  nature  can  bequeath 
There's  nothing  fairer  than  unsullied  teeth. 
What  edge  they  give  to  youth's  desires  and  bliss  ! 
Refine  its  eating  and  make  firm  its  kiss  ; 


ALL   ABOUT   A   WATCH-Y0U-MAY-C ALL-IT.  15 

While  graver  Age,  devoid  of  other  charms, 
Oft  by  fair  Teeth  wins  beauty  to  its  arms  ! 

So,  step  up  here,  old  friend,  and  give  me  a  chance  at 
your  osteoplastics.  The  public  await  you,  and  friend- 
ship calls." 

The  unhappy  shabby  man  grew  so  nervous  at  this; 
so  bewildered  and  frightened,  apparently ;  that  his  only 
reply  was  an  abject  and  very  desperate  attempt  to  run 
away.  The  crowd  behind  him  being  dense,  and  the  first 
subject  of  collision  a  handsome,  sturdy  young  fellow  in 
sailor's  dress,  his  flight  ended  where  it  began ;  but 
the  attempt  caused  a  momentary  rush  and  jam,  and 
some  one  bawled  a  caution  about  watches  and  pocket- 
books. 

At  the  cry,  the  would-be  fugitive,  all  pale  and  panting 
as  he  was,  mechanically  clapped  a  hand  to  one  of  his 
waistcoat  pockets,  and  piteously  whimpered  that  his  watch 
was  gone. 

"  Of  course,  it's  gone !"  whispered  a  brisk,  smooth- 
faced, sharp-eyed  man  at  his  elbow.  u  Didn't  that  sailor 
hustle  you  ?" 

In  a  moment,  the  poor,  nervous  creature  had  the 
sailor  by  an  arm,  and  was  frantically  imploring  him  to 
restore  the  missing  time-piece. 

a  What  are  you  talking  about,  good  man  !"  exclaimed 
the  young  fellow,  between  a  smile  and  a  stare.  "  I 
know  nothing  about  your  watch.     Are  you  crazy  ?" 

"  But  you  hustled  him,  you  know,"  put  in  the  sharp- 
eyed  man,  loudly  enough  for  all  around  to  hear ;  u  and 
his  watch  is  gone.     That's  suspicious,  I  should  say." 

"  That's  so !  Make  him  give  back  the  watch  !"  chorussed 
a  dozen  time-servers,  as  the  crowd  opened  with  alacrity 


16  ALL    ABOUT   A   WATCH- YOU-MAY-C ALL-IT. 

to  permit  the  hasty  outward  passage  of  one  low-browed 
and  small-eyed  fellow  who,  as  he  passingly  expressed  it, 
could  no  longer  refrain  from  calling  a  hofficer. 

"  Friends  !"  cried  the  sailor,  as  they  pressed  upon  him 
from  all  sides  and  temporarily  forgot  the  great  Oclonto- 
lator,  "  this  is  an  outrageous  mistake,  I  tell  you " 

Here  Dr.  Canary  made  an  abrupt  attempt  to  blend  the 
new  excitement  with  his  own  topic,  and  turn  it  to  ac- 
count.    "  From  ill  digestion,"  chaunted  he — 

"  From  ill  digestion,  when  the  Teeth  are  poor, 
Comes  ev'ry  evil  jails  are  built  to  cure. 
Crime  from  the  stomach,  not  the  heart,  is  bred, 
Or  from  some  unsound  molar  in  the  head." 

"  I  tell  you,"  reiterated  the  young  sailor,  angrily  push- 
ing aside  the  rudest  crowder,  "  that  there  is  some  out- 
rageous mistake  here  !  I'm  one  of  Uncle  Sam's  boys  just 
home  from  a  cruise,  and  hav'n't  the  sign  of  a  watch  about 
me.  Why,  just  look  here,"  and  he  plunged  a  hand  into 
a  pocket  of  his^blue  flannel  unmentionables ; — u  I'll  show 
you  all  my  traveling-rig.  Here's  my  bandanna,  you  see, 
and  I  believe  my  knife's  got  afoul  in  it  some  way. — Why ! 
— by  George  ! — it  isn't  a  knife  :  it's  a —  Watch  /" 

"  That's  it !  That's  my  watch,  you  scamp  !"  screamed 
the  shabby  man,  snatching  it  from  him. 

The  mischief  being  done,  the  police  were  just  due, 
and  a  languid  member  of  that  haughty  force  now  burst 
heavily  through  the  ring  about  these  side-show  perform- 
ers, and  placed  a  white  cotton  glove  on  the  nearer 
shoulder  of  the  detected  thief. 

"  Come  along !"  quoth  this  magnate,  whose  whiskers 
richly  entitled  him  to  a  place  in  the  Broadway  Squad, 
and  whose  nature  was  inflamed  because  he  ha&a't  it — 


ALL    ABOUT    A   WATCH  TO  U-M AY-CALL-IT.  17 

"  Come  along,  all  this  party,  with  me.  And  you  play- 
actor fellows  in  that  wagon,  there  !  move  on,  or  I'll 
make  yer.'' 

Pale  as  a  ghost,  and  with  the  bandanna  still  in  his 
hand,  the  sailor  went  speechlessly  along  under  the  im- 
pulse of  the  white  cotton  glove,  as  though  no  actuating 
soul  of  his  own  remained  in  him  ;  and  the  owner  of  the 
watch,  closely  attended  by  the  brisk,  sharp-eyed  man, 
reluctantly  followed  after  to  prefer  a  charge.  To  do 
credit  to  the  arrest,  and  prove  that  it  met  the  approba- 
tion of  all  thinking  men,  some  fifty  leisurely  gentlemen 
and  youths,  in  rakish  soft  hats  and  faded  blue  military 
overcoats,  also  marched  in  a  body  as  far  as  the  Police 
Court ;  but  here  the  doors  were  slammed  in  their  faces, 
and  it  was  only  left  for  them  to  exchange  sarcasms  under 
the  name  of  "  Johnny,"  and  proceed,  as  an  extemporized 
body-guard,  in  the  train  of  a  passing  fashionable  maiden 
who  had  the  Grecian  Bend.  But  one  of  all  the  swarm 
managed  to  get  into  court  with  the  prisoner's  party,  and 
that  was — Dr.  Canary. 

Mr.  Justice  O'Blackstone  may  not  have  written  it,  see- 
ing that  his  chirography  was  not  such  as  you  could  wish 
a  dear  friend  to  address  to  you,  but  it  was  generally 
understood,  in  high  legal  circles,  that  his  career  had,  at 
least,  suggested  that  graceful  book  of  travel  known  as 
"  Kambles  in  Yan  Dieman's  Land  ;  or,  The  Convict,  The 
Fugitive  before  the  Mast,  the  Naturalized  Citizen,  and 
the  Member  of  the  U.  S.  Judiciary."  Before  this  subtle 
master  of  the  Constitution  the  prisoner  was  unresistingly 
projected  by  the  white  cotton  glove. 

"And  what  have  yez  to  say  for  yourself  ?"  asked  the 
Justice,  after  hearing  the  faltering  accusation  of  the  shabby 
man,  who  seemed  miserably  bewildered  by  the  presence 


18  ALL   ABOUT   A   WATCH- YOU-MAY-CALL-IT. 

of  the  mountebank  and  the  continued  promptings  of  the 
sharp-eyed  man. 

"  I  say,"  responded  the  young  sailor,  still  very  pale, 
but  self-possessed  and  dreadfully  in  earnest,  "  that  I  am 
completely  astounded  at  this  thing !  I  never  put  that 
watch  into  my  pocket. '  I  know  they  saw  me  take  it  from 
my  pocket  with  the  handkerchief;  but  I  solemnly  swear 
that  I  never  put  it  there — never  saw  or  touched  it  before ! 
I  belong  to  the  ironclad  Chawuppa,  which  accounts  for 
my  being  so  little  tanned.  In  an  ironclad  of  her  mon- 
itor-build, a  man  is  more  under  water  than  in  the  sun, 
and  more  steamed  than  roasted.  I'm  an  honest  sailor 
who  has  fought  for  his  flag,  and  if  that  old  man  will  not 
withdraw  his  shameful  charge  against  me  I  am  ruined 
for  life  in  more  ways  than  one.  For  God's  sake,  sir,  be 
careful  how  you  forever  dishonor  the  innocent !  I  can't 
prove  that  I  didn't  take  that  watch  ;  but  you  did  not  see 
me  take  it,  and  I  beg  you  not  to  be  an  instrument  in 
what  is  part  of  a  conspiracy  against  me  and  mine." 

"  Sure,  and  it's  a  power  of  gab  ye  have,  acushla,"  ob- 
served the  Court ;  "  and  f  hat  might  yer  name  be  ?" 

u  I  decline  to  give  that.     Call  me  John  Doe." 

"  Your  Honor,"  said  the  sharp  -  eyed  man,  stepping 
forward  near  the  prisoner,  "  I'm  a  detective  officer,  name 
of  Stalker,  and  I  think  I  know  this  man.  Young  fellow, 
isn't  your  name  Aster  ?" 

"  Yes,"  returned  the  prisoner,  staring  with  surprise 
and  apparent  discomfiture  at  the  questioner,  "  I  may  as 
well  own-up  that  far.     My  name  is  Aster." 

"  I  thought  so,"  muttered  the  detective,  with  a  barely 
perceptible  wink  ;  and  his  manner  was  as  much  as  to 
acid  :  "  It's  a  name  I  know  little  good  about." 

"  It's  committed,  prisoner,  ycz'll  have  to  be "  began 


ALL    ABOUT    A    WATCH- YOU-M AY-CALL-IT.  19 

Justice  O'Blackstone ;  but  the  prisoner,  with  amazing 
presumption,  cut  him  short  there  : 

"As  I  hope  for  salvation,  I  did  not  take  the  watch ! 
If  I  had  stolen  it,  do  you  think  I  would  have  pulled  it 
from  my  pocket  again  in  that  way  ?  My  dear  old  man, 
you  don't  seem  to  be  willing  in  this  thing,  and  I  implore 
you  to  take  back  the  charge.  Perhaps  you're  a  father. 
I  tell  you  that  I  can  see  in  this  pickpocket  trick  upon 
me — and  it's  nothing  else — a  plan  to  set  my  father  against 
me.  To  make  him  think  me  a  thief !  Why,  you,  your- 
self, may  some  day  be  dragged  into  court " 

Here  he  was  cut  short,  in  his  turn,  by  the  man  whom 
he  addressed;  for  the  latter  started — almost  fell — back, 
as  though  he  had  received  a  blow,  and  cried,  in  a  sharp, 
tremulous  voice — 

"  I'll  not  charge  you  with  anything  !  Don't  go  on  ! 
I'll  not  charge  you  with  anything  I" 

"  But,"  observed  the  Justice,  very  red  in  the  face,  a  it's 
tistified  ye  have  already,  Misther  Dapple,  that  yere  watch 
was  taken  from  the  pocket  of  this  very  spalpeen  that's  now 
so  contimpchuss  about  the  ividinces  of  yere  own  eyes." 

"  Contemptuous  !"  repeated  the  prisoner,  impatiently. 
"  What  contempt  a  man  like  me  can  afford  to  feel  is 
reserved  for  vice  and  ignorance " 

"  Thin,  begorra,  it's  guilty  ye  are  of  contimpt  of  Coort !" 
roared  the  Justice,  catching  him  by  his  own  inadvertent 
confession,  "  and  I'll  commit  ye  for  a  pickpocket." 

The  sailor  drew  himself  up  magnificently,  and  his 
curly,  black  liair,  manly  moustache,  coal-black  eyes,  and 
warmly  tinted  complexion,  seemed  all  to  quiver  and  radi- 
ate with  the  noble  anger  of  a  fine  soul  at  bay : 

"  I  am  not  a  Pickpocket,  I  am  a  victim  of  Woman's 

HATE." 


20  THE   WATCH   A   DUPLEX   LEVEE. 

And  the  words  had  scarcely  left  his  lips,  when,  with 
an  agile  spring  he  alighted  upon  the  policeman  nearest 
and  knocked  him  down  ;  knocked  down  detective  Stalker ; 
knocked  down  Dr.  Canary  and  the  officer  at  the  door ; 
knocked  open  the  latter,  and  was — Off. 

Off!  your  Honor,  and  Gentlemen  of  the  Jury.  Off! 
Reverend  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  and  Members  of  the 
Citizens'  Association.  Off!  Messieurs  Legislative  In- 
vestigating Committee,  and  incorruptible  District  At- 
torneys. And  getting  thus  off  around  us — though  gener- 
ally through  political  influence — every  day. 


II. 


THE  WATCH  A  DUPLEX  LEVEE. 

THE  Bowery,  as  a  business  thoroughfare,  compares 
with  Broadway  very  much  as  Mr.  Oliver  Wendell 
Holmes'  serious  poetry  compares  with  Tennyson's.  There 
are,  undoubtedly,  a  greater  number  of  Capitals  employed 
in  it ;  but  a  score  of  them  do  not  amount  to  as  much, 
usually,  as  the  least  significant  single  one  in  Broadway. 
There  are  more  ground-floor  noise  and  assumption  about 
it ;  but  there  is  also  more  comparatively  vacant  upper- 
story.  It  may  exceed  its  rival  in  its  retail  of  Yankee 
Notions ;  but  where  is  its  own  wholesale  of  the  Best 
European  ?  ISTo  one  will  deny  its  possession  of  certain 
original  lines  (of  horse-cars),  which  do  not  everywhere 


THE   WATCH    A    DUPLEX   LEVEE.  21 

occur  in  the  Street  of  Mercantile  Palaces  ;  but,  for  that 
very  reason,  the  latter  should  have  clearer  passages. 

The  Bowery,  however,  is  a  fine,  wide,  double-line  of 
the  democracies  of  carpet,  candy,  clothing,  millinery, 
drugs,  boots,  shoes,  hardware,  and  what  not,  picked-out 
here  and  there  with  those  quaint,  old-fashioned  houses  of 
a  past  time,  which,  like  gray  hairs  in  young  locks,  give  a 
spicy  dash  of  old  age  to  the  more  youthful  bricks  forever 
going  it  in  a  highway.  Wooden  are  most  of  those  same 
old  Landmarks ;  and  to  one  of  them  (standing,  at  the 
time  of  our  story,  not  far  from  the  late  New  Bowery 
Theatre),  with  a  steep  shingle  roof,  rich  in  moss,  a  two- 
story  ed  yellow  front,  rather  rickety  about  its  shutters 
and  doors,  and  a  grim  mouth  of  a  store,  in  which  a  com- 
munity of  toy  gentlemen,  ladies,  animals,  villages,  railway 
trains,  etc.,  seemed  on  their  way  to  such  a  gigantic  swal- 
lowing as  the  ancient  fabulous  dragons  inflicted  upon 
commonwealths  of  a  larger  growth,  the  attention  of  the 
reader  is  herewith  directed.  Above  said  dragon's-mouth, 
by  way  of  moustache,  was  a  dingy  sign-board,  reading 
thus : 


GEOFFREY    DAPPLE, 

INYENTOK  OF  MECHANICAL  TOYS. 


and  just  within  the  gritty  lips  of  the  mouth,  like  an  es- 
pecially dainty  tid-bit,  to  be  swallowed  last,  stood  pretty 
Dollie  Dapple,  waiting  for  her  father. 

All  distinctive  woman-character  begins  with  a  doll, 
and  Miss  Dapple  had  none  of  the  strong-minded  young- 
woman-as-clerk  aspect  in  her  suggested  connection  with 
a  business  in  which  dolls  had  it  all  their  own  wav.    There 


22  THE  WATCH  A  DUPLEX  LEVEE. 

was  n't  the  least  hint  of  female  clerkliness  (which  is  gen- 
erally a  rather  embittered  type  of  feminine  loveliness) 
in  her  laughing  brown  eyes,  plump  red  cheeks,  and 
springy  figure ;  and  the  manner  in  which  her  plentiful 
brown  curls  fell  into  an  arch  veil  for  either  eye,  as  she 
slightly  stooped  to  peer  up  or  down  the  street,  was  any- 
thing but  business-like.  If  the  spirit  of  the  shop  clung 
to  her  at  all,  it  was  in  the  shape  of  the  twelve-inch  young 
lady,  very  waxy  about  the  head  and  shoulders,  who 
swooned  limply  in  her  little  right  hand,  and  was  in  such 
a  primitive  stage  of  toilet  as  made  bed,  or  a  fashionable 
party,  seem  a  more  suitable  place  for  her  than  the  street. 

"  I  wonder  what  keeps  him  f '  asked  Dollie  of  herself, 
noticing  that  twilight  deepened,  and  the  public  lamps  in 
the  distance  began  twinkling. 

It  is  an  invariable  and  sarcastic  commentary  upon  the 
keenest  human  vigilance,  that  after  one  has  spent  hours 
of  preternatural  alertness  in  looking  up  and  down  a 
road,  for  the  chance  to  meet  some  expected,  and  suppos- 
ably  unexpecting,  loved  one  half  way,  as  it  were,  there 
is  always  the  one  rash  second  of  exhausted  nature's  ab- 
straction, during  which  the  loved  one  is  sure  to  make 
miraculous  speed  from  the  horizon  to  your  elbow,  and  be 
there  to  startle  all  intelligible  English  out  of  you  at  your 
next  turn  of  the  head.  So  it  happened,  that  while  Miss 
Dapple  borrowed  just  half  a  minute  from  her  anxious 
vigil  to  look  at  a  new  style  of  bonnet  going  by,  her  agile 
sire  vanquished  at  least  six  good  blocks  of  practicable 
Bowery  perspective,  and  was  beside  her  before  she  had 
decided  whether  the  Trimming  was  Gathered  or  Fluted. 

Not  only  beside  her,  but  actually  brushing  past  into 
the  store,  without  a  word  of  greeting  ! 

"  Why  I— !   Well,  I  declare !"   was  the  best  Dollie 


THE   WATCH    A   DUPLEX   LEVER.  23 

could  say,  as,  with  a  prettily  provoked  air,  she  flirted  in 
after  the  shabby  man  of  the  police  court,  and  permitted 
the  sashed  door  to  spring  shut  so  pettishly,  that  its  alarm- 
bell  at  the  top  was  excited  to  the  verge  of  going  off  the 
handle.  "What  in  the  world  has  kept  you  so  late, 
father  ?  Oh  !" — with  a  sudden  shock  of  fright— "  what 
can  be  the  matter  P' 

It  was  rather  shadowy  in  the  Toy  Store  by  that  time ; 
but  as  Geoffrey  Dapple  wearily  pulled  off  his  rusty  old 
hat,  with  its  faded  band  of  crape,  his  daughter  could  de- 
tect, plainly  enough,  a  haggard  change  in  his  counte- 
nance. 

"  I'm  tired  and  worried,  dear,"  said  he,  motioning  ner- 
vously for  her  to  lead  the  way  farther  inward. 

66  And  so  you  must  be,  to  stay  so  long,"  said  Dollie,  as 
they  entered  a  back  room,  whose  open  doorway  com- 
manded a  view  of  the  whole  stock.  "  I  was  afraid  you'd 
been  run-over,  or  got  lost.  Now,  father,  do  sit  down, 
and  tell  me  what  is  the  matter  !" 

"  Yes,  yes  I"  he  responded,  peevishly ;  "  but  go  light 
the  lamps  in  the  store,  my  dear,  or  the  neighbors  will 
think  there's  something  suspicious — something  suspi- 
cious." 

The  girl  glanced  at  him  inquiringly,  as  though  both 
puzzled  and  alarmed  by  something  very  unusual  in  his 
words  and  tone  ;  but  made  no  further  remark  until  after 
the  toy  salesroom  was  respectably  illuminated,  and  a  ker- 
osene lamp,  warranted  not  to  explode  until  women  or 
children  were  alone  with  it,  stood  burning  on  the  middle 
of  a  little  tea-table  neatly  set  for  two. 

The  room  was  a  goodly  square,  with  one  large  window 
looking  across  a  poor  strip  of  yard  to  the  back  of  a  build- 
ing on  a  rear  street,  and  having  at  its  top  a  faded  turkey- 


24  THE   WATCH   A   DUPLEX   LEVER. 

red  curtain,  gathered  and  tucked  up  in  most  slovenly  and 
impracticable  style  along  its  sustaining  rod.  In  a  corner 
was  a  round  stove,  bearing  a  humming  and  fidgety  tea- 
kettle then,  but  also  attended  on  one  side  by  that  materia 
medica  of  the  Doll  family,  a  glue-pot.  In  another  corner 
appeared  an  iron  camp-bed ;  in  another  a  painted  cup- 
board ;  and  in  the  fourth,  a  sort  of  work-bench,  with 
vice,  tiles,  drills,  a  portable  lathe,  and  what  looked  like  a 
small  brass  box-work  set  full  of  cog-wheels.  In  the  cen- 
tre was  the  tea-table,  and,  in  various  places  over  the 
much-worn  ingrain  carpet,  struggled  three  or  four  ancient 
rush-bottomed  chairs,  on  their  last  legs. 

Here,  in  the  lamplight,  the  shabby  Toyman  looked  less 
like  a  very  old  man  than  in  the  street ;  yet  his  face  was 
pretty  seriously  wrinkled,  too ;  and  his  white-streaked 
pale  hair,  bent  shoulders,  and  overlarge  old  coat  and 
waistcoat  of  napless  black,  certainly  invested  him  with  a 
drooping  forlornness  of  aspect  not  contagiously  redolent 
of  the  prime  of  life. 

"  Kow,  Father,"  said  Dollie,  in  a  sort  of  admonitory 
way,  glancing  curiously  at  him  once  more,  as  he  sat 
glowering  and  sighing  near  the  stove,  "  while  I  put  the 
tea  drawing,  you  must  tell  me  what  ails  you.  Because 
I  know  that  something  does  ail  you,"  added  Dollie, 
vigorously,  "  and  there's  no  use  of  your  saying  it 
does  n't !" 

u  Yes,  daughter,"  returned  the  Toyman,  sighing,  and 
shaking  his  head  drearily  at  the  lamp,  "  something  does 
ail  me.  I  grow  so  much  worse  a  Coward  every  day,  that 
I  should  not  attempt  to  go  out-doors  with  other  men  at 
all !  I'm  a  miserable,  miserable  old  man !  If  you  were 
provided  for,  poor  girl,  I'd  sooner  die  any  death,  than 
live  on  in  this  way." 


THE   WATCH    A    DUPLEX   LEVER.  25 

Rubbing  liis  hands  slowly  together,  and  frowning  at 
them,  and  saying  this  as  spiritlessly  as  though  it  had 
been  dictated  to  him,  word  for  word,  by  an  enemy, 
Geoffrey  Dapple  succeeded  in  making  his  daughter  for- 
getful of  everything  save  his  apparent  need  of  imme- 
diate magnetic  comfort.  It  is  a  part  of  every  woman's 
most  solemn  belief,  that  her  particular  hands  possess  a 
magical  soothing  power  for  all  brows  towards  which  she 
is  affectionately  inclined;  and  to  get  to  work  upon  a 
good  high  forehead  in  affliction  is  ever  her  stateliest  joy. 
Of  course  Dollie  left  the  tea-pot  and  started  for  the 
paternal  brow  at  once. 

"  Why,  Father  I"  she  said,  with  a  hand  on  his  shoulder 
for  a  moment;  and  then  the  soothing  process  began. 
"You're  only  more  nervous  than  usual  to-night,  and 
want  to  be  magnetized  before  supper.  I  should  like  to 
know  what  there  is  to  make  you  cowardly ;  except  the 
cars  and  express-wagons,  which  would  just  as  soon  run 
over  anybody  as  not  ?  And  you're  not  a  miserable  old 
man,  any  more  than  I'm  an  old  maid." 

Her  "passes"  over  his  forehead  did  appear  to  soothe 
him,  for  he  remained  quite  still  under  them  several 
moments. 

iC  Dollie,"  said  he,  finally,  and  with  a  slowness  sug- 
gestive of  confused  thought,  "  do  you  remember  a  man 
with  long,  straight  black  hair,  small  eyes,  and  a  red  nose : 
say  about  fifty — yes,  about  fifty-years  old  V 

"N-n-no,  Father.     Why?"  " 

"  I've  seen  such  a  man  to-day,"  he  replied,  dropping 
his  voice  and  nervously  pulling  at  his  chin  with  a  rest- 
less hand.  "  I've  seen  such  a  man,  and  he's  seen  me.  He 
was  a  mountebank,  selling  some  quack  preparation  .... 
I'm  sure  I  know  him,  and  he  knows  me :  .  .  .  but  I  can't 


26  THE   WATCH    A   DUPLEX   LEVER. 

seem  to  place  him, — I  can't  seem  to  place  him. — Dollie  !" 
exclaimed  the  Toyman,  suddenly  upturning  his  face  to 
hers,  with  a  pitiable,  craven  twitching  all  over  it,  "  I  was 
mortally  afraid  of  that  man — and  he  knew  it !" 

She  kissed  his  forehead,  and  gently  posed  his  head 
again  for  the  passes. 

u  I  tell  you,  you  dear  old  fellow,  you've  only  had  one 
of  your  nervous  turns  again,"  commented  Dollie ;  but 
the  pretty  face  bending  over  his  head  wore  an  expression 
of  anxious  thought,  for  all,  not  devoid  of  vague  appre- 
hension. 

"  Well,  no  matter ;  no  matter  for  that  now,"  he  sighed. 
"  I'd  almost  forgotten  something  else.  I  get  more  con- 
fused and  forgetful  every  day." 

"  That's  because  you're  killing  yourself  over  that  In- 
vention of  yours,  Father.  It's  in  your  head  the  whole 
time.'' 

"  And  in  my  Heart, — as  heavy  as  lead  in  my  Heart !" 
wailed  the  man.  "But  I'll  tell  you  about  the  other 
thing,  now,  my  dear." 

Then  did  the  shabby  Inventor,  sitting  there  under  his 
darling's  soothing  hands,  relate  the  loss  of  his  watch,  the 
arrest  of  the  sailor -thief,  the  scene  in  the  police  court, 
and  the  daring  escape. 

"  As  I  really  lost  nothing  by  him,"  concluded  he,  "  I 
was  not  sorry  that  the  sailor  got  away ;  for  he  was  a 
handsome  frank-looking  young  fellow,  and  would  have 
made  me  sure  of  his  innocence,  if  I  hadn't  seen  his  guilt 
with  my  own  eyes.     What's  the  matter,  Dollie  ?'' 

This  last,  because  the  girl's  hands  after  a  very  unsteady 
pass  or  two  across  his  forehead,  appeared  to  hover  ex- 
citedly over  his  eyes,  and  appeared  also  to  shake  with 
some  new  and  covert  emotion. 


THE    WATCH    A    DUPLEX    LEVER.  27 

"  Oh,  nothing's  the  matter,"  said  Dollie,  stroking 
busily  again.     "He  was  a  nice  young  man,  was  he  ?" 

"  Yes,  yes :  handsome  and  frank,"  replied  the  father, 
relapsing  partially  into  his  old  confused  style  again. 
"He  said  that  I  might  be  arrested  some  day,  myself, — 
I,  myself!  Could  he  have  Suspected  anything?" 

"He  might  have  suspected  that  your  watch  was  a 
duplex  lever,"  put  in  Dollie,  with  a  curious  little  flutter 
in  her  voice ;  and  again  her  plump  hands  began  sliding 
downward  towards  his  eyes. 

"I  don't  understand  you,  daughter.  It's  an  English 
lever,  you  know." 

Down  went  the  hands  over  his  eyes. 

"Wouldn't  it  have  to  be  a  duplex  leave- er,  sir,"  laughed 
Miss  Dapple,  in  great  enjoyment  of  her  own  pun,  "if  it 
could  be  in  two  places  at  once  ?  Now  confess  you've 
been  nervous  !  Just  think  of  your  magnanimity  toward  a 
nice  young  man  (and  I'm  so  glad  he  got  away !)  who 
couldn't  have  got  your  watch  if  he'd  been  ever  so  bad." 

"Eh!"  ejaculated  the  Toyman,  endeavoring  to  free  his 
eyes  and  spectacles,  "  why  couldn't  he  ?" 

With  a  ringing  laugh,  full  of  the  fun  of  having  caught 
her  sire  in  a  pretty  piece  of  absent-mindedness,  the  girl 
quickly  withdrew  her  hands  from  his  face : 

"  Because  you  left  youe  watch  at  Home  !" 


28  A   GLIMPSE   OF   THE    SKELETON. 


III. 


A   GLIMPSE   OF   THE   SKELETON. 

TT~P  sprang  Geoffrey  Dapple  to  his  feet,  glaring  across 
J  the  room  toward  a  well-known  nail  just  over  the 
work-bench ;  where,  sure  enough,  hung  a  white  faced, 
chubby  gold  watch. 

"  Have  I  been  dreaming  ?  Am  I  crazy  ?"  he  panted, 
clutching  a  pocket  of  his  waistcoat,  and  still  staring  at 
the  hanging  timepiece  as  though  it  had  been  a  ghost  of  a 
watch.  "  It's  there ;  and  yet  it's  here  !  Some  cursed 
witchcraft  has  got  possession  of  me.     Look,  child  !" 

He  had  drawn  from  the  pocket  and  held  in  his  hand  a 
watch  exactly  like  the  one  against  the  wall,  its  black  silk 
chain  having  been  cut  by  the  thief  in  its  abstraction  ! 

Dollie  had  believed  that  the  watch  claimed  by  her 
father  in  the  street  was  really  the  property  of  the  sup- 
posed thief,  and,  in  her  glee  over  the  assured  blunder, 
did  not  give  enough  attention  to  the  whole  confused 
story  to  realize  that  the  forgetful  old  man  had  finally  re- 
tained it.  Hence,  at  sight  of  it  now,  in  its  exact  dupli- 
cation of  the  one  over  the  bench,  the  color  left  her  cheek, 
and  she  lifted  both  hands. 

"  What  can  it  mean  ?" 

The  Toyman,  his  hands  trembling  so  that  the  watch 
shook  in  them,  held  the  latter  near  the  lamp  and  ex- 
amined it  closely.      Something   about  it  in  that  view 


A   GLIMPSE    OF   TIIE    SKELETON.  29 

startled  him  anew,  and,  in  great  haste,  he  opened  the 
back  of  the  case. 

"  Merciful  Heaven !"  groaned  he,  sinking  into  a  chair, 
and  dropping  his  face  upon  his  arms  on  the  table. 

"  Oh,  Father !"  quivered  Dollie,  afraid  to  move, 
"  you'll  break  my  heart  if  you  do  so  !  You'll  break  the 
plates  too,"  she  added,  hysterically. 

He  raised  his  head,  stared  at  her  in  slow-coming  com- 
prehension of  her  distress,  and  mechanically  replaced  the 
cluplicatory  mystery  in  his  pocket.  "I  want  time  to 
think,"  he  said,  very  slowly.  "  Let  us  eat,  now,  and  we 
shall  be  more  in  our  senses  after  it.  I'll  tell  you  more, 
then.     Come." 

Drawing  closer  to  the  table,  he  waited  silent] v,  almost 
stolidly,  with  gaze  riveted  to  his  plate,  for  his  daughter's 
ministration ;  nor  did  either  speak  again  until  the  form 
of  a  meal  had  been  completed,  and  the  table  and  earthen 
service  cleared  away.  Then  the  father  called  the 
daughter  to  a  stool  beside  his  chair,  where  they  could 
both  keep  an  eye  over  the  Store  ;  and  placing  a  hand  on 
her  pretty  bowed  head,  said,  almost  in  a  whisper  : 

"  This  watch  which  has  come  to  me  to-day,  was — your 
Mother's." 

"  My  Mother's  !"  cried  Dollie,  clasping  his  arm. 

"  Your  Step-mother's." 

"She  was  not  my  Mother  !"  burst  indignantly  from  the 
girl,  as  she  raised  her  eyes,  all  sparkling  with  sudden 
feeling,  to  her  father's  rigid  face. 

"  She  was  my  unhappy  Wife  !"  continued  the  Toyman, 
deliberately,  as  though  forcing  himself  to  speak.  "  Her 
initials,  '  L.D.' — Lydia  Dapple — are  engraved  on  the 
inner  side  of  the  back  of  this  watch,  as  mine  arc  on  the 
inside  of  mine.     They  were  put  there  at  her  request, 


30  A   GLIMPSE    OF   THE    SKELETON. 

that  they  might  never  wear  out.  I  bought  the  two,  ex- 
actly alike,  on  the  day  of  our  wedding.  She  was  a 
handsome  and— I  truly  believe,  God  pity  me ! — a  loving 
woman  then." 

"She  broke  your  heart!"  exclaimed  Dollie,  pressing 
her  lips  to  his  arm.  "She  hated  me  and  made  you 
wretched.  That  hateful  watch  must  have  some  of  her 
spirit  in  it,  to  come  back  here,  again,  after  being  lost  in 
the  hospital." 

"  It  has  come  back  because  I  am  Unblest  in  my  mem- 
ory of  her,"  muttered  Geoffrey  Dapple ;  "  because  I 
am  under  a  curse  to  which  all  things  must  add  weight, 
until  I — "  he  half  recoiled  from  his  daughter's  touch — 
"  until  I— die !" 

"  Which  you  shouldn't  speak  about  to  me,  if  you  don't 
want  me  to  die  first !"  sobbed  Dollie,  bursting  into  tears. 
"  You  ought  to  take  the  watch  right  back  to  the  magis- 
trata  to-morrow,  Father,  and  clear  that  poor  young  sailor's 
name,  so  far  as  you're  concerned." 

"Dollie,"  was  the  quick,  even  stern,  answer,  "your 
Father  dares  not  enter  a  Court  of  Justice.  The  skeleton 
from  this  home  of  ours  would  follow  me  there,  and — 
Denounce  me." 

"  Denounce  you  !"  repeated  the  girl,  her  head  proudly 
raised,  and  her  face  passionately  flushed  :  "  Her  spirit 
denounce  You  ?  You,  who  bore  so  patiently  with  her 
tyranny  over  yourself  and  her  persecution  of  me,  until 
you  had  to  almost  ruin  yourself  to  support  her  extrava- 
gance, and  send  me  away  to  school  ?  You,  who  endured 
more  from  her  cruel  temper  in  a  day,  than  I  could  respect 
any  man  for  standing  from  me,  in  a  year  ?  You,  who 
couldn't  help  her  removal  to  the  hospital,  and  death 
there, — how  could  you,  dear  ? — when  you,  yourself,  had 


A    GLIMPSE   OF   THE    SKELETON.  31 

fallen  clown  so  sick  that  you  knew  nothing  for  a  fortnight, 
and  had  scarcely  means  to  pay  for  my  coming  home  from 
school  to  attend  you  ?  You,  whose  work  of  years  was 
lost  on  that  day,  and  never  found  again,  because  it  must 
have  been  the  last  act  of  her  life  to  destroy  it  ?  Father, 
when  you  make  regret  for  her  the  ruin  of  your  life,  you 
insult  the  memory  of  My  Own  Mother,  who  never  caused 
you  a  sorrow  until  she  died  !" 

She  spoke  very  rapidly,  catching  her  breath,  and  with 
all  the  impetuosity  of  her  youthful  nature  blown  into 
flame  as  by  a  chill  wind  from  that  only  toward  which  her 
heart  was  cold.  Yisibly  alarmed  and  shocked,  the  Toy- 
man shrank  from  the  arm  she  had  begun  placing  about 
his  neck. 

"  Daughter !"  answered  he,  reproachfully,  "  it  is  sinful, 
it  is  unnatural  in  one  of  your  years,  to  speak  so  bitterly 
of  the  dead.  Are  you  fitted  to  judge  what  a  wife's  ac- 
tions should  have  been,  when  such  trying  infirmities  of 
disposition  as  mine  often  are  were  sometimes  their  provo- 
cation \  Ah,  my  child  !  when  you  talk  so,  where  shall  I 
look  for  comfort  ?" 

6i  Oh,  well,"  cried  Dollie,  discharging  every  trace  of 
temper  from  her  countenance  on  the  instant,  "  I  know 
I'm  the  mischief  when  I  get  started  ;  but  you  're  such  a 
worrying  Old  Dear  sometimes  !  Wouldn't  you  like  me 
to  stay  with  you  this  evening,  instead  of  going  around  to 
Sophia  Skeggs's  ?  If  I  let  yon  sit  here  moping  all  alone, 
after  getting  that  goblin  watch,  you'll  be  spoiling  the 
temper  of  all  the  dolls,  as  you  have  mine."  And,  this 
time,  she  forced  her  arms  around  him,  as  she  knelt  on  the 
stool,  and  kissed  his  forehead. 

"  No,  my  darling ,"  he  returned,  with  more  of  his  usual 
home-manner  than  he  had  yet  shown,  u  you  must  go  and 


32  A   GLIMPSE    OF   THE   SKELETON. 

see  your  friend,  as  you  promised.  This  is  a  very  strange 
thing  about  the  watch,  and  might  make  a  younger  man 
nervous,  as  you  call  it ;  but  I'm  quite  myself,  now,  and 
shall  work  a  little  at  the  bench  this  evening." 

Here  the  alarm-bell  on  the  store-door  rang  frantically, 
owing  to  the  headlong  advent  past  it  of  a  precocious  lad, 
who,  in  consideration  of  fifty  cents  a  week,  came  every 
night  at  Seven  (save  during  Holiday  seasons)  to  put  up 
the  shutters,  and  every  morning,  at  the  same  hour,  to 
take  them  down. 

"  Oh,  there's  that  hateful  boy !"  ejaculated  Miss  Dap- 
ple, as  she  took  her  hat  and  shawl  from  a  drawer  under 
the  cupboard.  And  as  she  passed  the  same  despised 
youth,  on  her  way  out,  a  something  in  the  sudden  set  of 
his  shapeless  cap,  which  seemed  rather  ironically  sugges- 
tive of  the  poise  of  her  own  jaunty  "  Jockey,"  caused  her 
to  step  back  for  a  moment  and  feebly  box  his  large  ears. 

Orlonzo  Goggle  was  the  supposed  name  of  this  boy ; 
and  a  boy  with  redder  hair,  more  freckles,  or  a  more 
contagious  squint,  was  not  to  be  found  this  side  of  Jer- 
sey. His  years  could  not  have  been  more  than  ten, 
though  his  ragged  plenitude  of  cap,  and  astonishing  un- 
occupied width  of  fustian  sack-coat  and  pantaloons,  made 
him  look  like  a  middle-aged  'longshoreman  seen  from  the 
top  of  Trinity  steeple.  On  the  little  finger  of  his  right 
hand  he  wore  a  rakish  brass  ring,  garnished  with  a  sharp- 
ened nub,  for  self-defence  in  night  encounters  ;  and  both 
of  his  shoes  ran  down  hill  so  violently  over  the  heels, 
that  the  corrugated  toes  pointed  upward  and  askew  in 
reckless  demoralization. 

By  some  ingenious  accommodation  of  his  squint  to  a 
nearly  direct  line  of  vision,  the  youth  was  able  to  dis- 
cover that  the  eyes  of  the  Toyman,  in  the  back-room, 


A    GLIMPSE    OF   THE    SKELETON.  33 

were  apparently  watching  him,  whereupon  he  ostenta- 
tiously blew  into  his  hands,  rolled  the  massive  cuffs  of 
his  mammoth  sleeves  still  higher  up,  and  scuffled  intensely 
with  his  shoes  in  the  corner  near  the  show-window  where 
the  shutters  were  kept.  Noting,  over  a  shoulder,  that 
his  employer  had  sunk  back  in  his  chair,  and  was  lost  in 
thought  over  some  object  which  he  held  in  his  hands,  he 
artistically  graduated  his  scuffling  to  silence,  again,  and 
then  stole  noiselessly  along  the  shelves  behind  the  coun- 
ter, where  the  choicest  toys,  and  particularly  the  dolls, 
lay  in  state.  Amongst  the  latter  was  a  Five-dollar  ver- 
sion of  female  beauty  and  fashion,  whom  the  young  van- 
dal took  stealthily  from  her  private-box,  and  caused  to 
cough,  work  her  eyelids,  and  throw  her  arms,  by  insidi- 
ously pressing  a  spring  in  some  vital  part  of  her  system. 
Thereupon  he  made  her  do  it  again,  as  who  should  think  : 
This  is  a  rare  and  curious  study  of  feminine  character 
which  can  not  be  too  deeply  pondered  by  Those  About  to 
Marry.  A  sound  from  the  back-room  induced  him  to  re- 
place the  accomplished  woman  in  her  box  with  great 
haste,  and  skim  away  toward  the  show-window  once 
more.  Another  quick  look  from  thence  showing  the 
Toyman  to  be  still  in  his  dreams,  he  as  noiselessly  went 
down  upon  all-fours,  and,  from  that,  raised  the  lower 
half  of  his  fustian  body  in  the  air  :  this  shocking  reverse 
in  early  life  having  its  uses  in  allowing  him  to  execute  a 
brief  promenade  along  the  doorway  and  back  again,  on 
his  hands,  and  giving  passers  in  the  street  an  idea  that 
the  Concern  was  getting-up  a  neat  mechanical  Santa 
Cldfus  going  down  a  chimney,  for  the  holidays. 

"  Ah,  that  was  a  bully  go  !"   ejaculated  the  flushed 

youth  under  his  breath,  as  he  finally  returned  to  upright 

proceedings.     "  Now  for  the  shut's." 

T 


34  THE   MYSTERY    OF   THE   WALKTXG   DOLL. 

To  see  him  carry  out  the  tall  shutters,  propped  by  his 
forehead,  was  to  expect  a  catastrophe  in  overbalancing 
with  every  one  ;  to  hear  him  whistle  some  savage  air  of 
the  circus  while  ever  he  was  outside  with  one  shutter, 
and  leave  it  out  there  until  he  reappeared  with  the  next, 
was  to  gain  ideas  for  a  new  Phantom  Chorus  of  distant 
locomotives ;  and  to  note  how,  after  all  the  store-lights 
save  one  were  extinguished,  the  door  was  locked,  and  the 
key  dropped  inside  through  the  newspaper-slip,  he  paused 
on  the  sidewalk  to  explore  the  entire  lining  of  his  im- 
mense coat  for  what  proved,  upon  recovery,  to  be  the 
ruins  of  a  segar,  was  to  suffer  the  conviction  that  Mr. 
Goggle  might  seriously  embarrass  the  calculations  of 
such  provincial  gentleman,  or  lady,  as  should  take  him 
for  an  infant. 


IV. 


THE  MYSTERY  OF  THE  WALKING  DOLL. 

"  T)OOR  Dollie  !"  muttered  Geoffrey  Dapple,  turn- 
JL  ing  the  watch  in  his  hands,  and  mournfully  nod- 
ding to  some  suggestion  of  his  thoughts,  u  she  little 
thinks  what  I  could  tell  her.  Oh,  Lydia  !  Lydia  !  if  you 
could  but  come  to  life  !" 

His  despondent  reverie  was  disturbed  by  a  sound  from 
the  store-door,  as  of  some  one  who  first  tapped  timidly 
against  the  latter  with  cautious  finger-tips,  and  then  pro- 
ceeded by  bolder  degrees  to  a  free  use  of  knuckles.  As 
a  customer  for  toys  would  scarcely  come  so  unseasonably, 


THE   MYSTERY    OF   TIIE   WALKING   DOLL.  35 

and  his  daughter  always  returned  by  the  house-door,  the 
Toyman  answered  the  unusual  summons  with  angry  re- 
luctance. Half  suspecting  some  mischievous  boy  of  be- 
ing the  tapper,  he  finally  inserted  the  key  in  the  lock  as 
softly  as  he  could,  and  opened  the  door  with  a  jerk,  when 
there  entered  unto  him,  with  considerable  celerity,  a  fig- 
ure whose  form  and  features  challenged  no  definite  recog- 
nition  in  the  dim  light. 

"  Probably  you  have  made  a  mistake,  sir,"  remarked 
Geoffrey,  with  some  sharpness.  "  This  is  my  store,  and 
it  is  closed  to  business  for  the  night." 

"  To  the  toy  and  gimcrack  business,  I  dare  say,"  an- 
swered the  stranger,  promptly  ;  "  but  I've  made  no  mis- 
take, Mr.  Dapple,  and  I  wish  to  see  you  concerning  a 
piece  of  mechanism." 

"  Who  are  you  ?"  asked  Geoffrey,  in  an  altered  tone, 
placing  a  hand  upon  the  other's  chest.  "  I  must  know 
that  before  you  enter  a  step  farther." 

"  Certainly.     I'm  Doctor  Canary." 

"  Your  true  name,  I  mean." 

u  That  is  it." 

"  "What  are  you  dogging  me  for  ?" 

"  If  there's  anything  canine  in  looking  on  at  a  police 
court,  ascertaining  that  the  prosecutor  in  a  case  is  an  in- 
genious inventor,  and  calling  upon  the  inventor  after  bus- 
iness-hours to  solicit  his  special  inventive  services, — if 
there's  anything  doggy  in  that,  why  then  I'm  your  cur." 

The  Toyman  had  turned  up  the  blaze  of  the  one  burn- 
ing lamp  in  the  store,  closed  the  door  and  relocked  it,  and 
now  stood  intently  regarding  the  ex-mountebank,  who 
looked  like  some  backsliding  Temperance  lecturer,  with 
his  long  Indian  locks,  red  nose,  and  shabby-genteel  Chris- 
tian dress. 


36  THE    MYSTERY    OF   THE    WALKING    DOLL. 

(i  Whoever  yon  are,  you  come  here  for  no  good.  When 
and  where  have  we  seen  each  other  before  to-day  ?" 

"  Why,  Mr.  Dapple,  since  you're  so  anxious  to  claim  me 
for  an  old  acquaintance,  I  may  as  well  admit,  frankly,  that 
my  familiar  address  to  you  in  the  Square,  this  afternoon, 
was  really  no  more  than  a  professional  trick.  You  were 
staring  at  me  with  spectacles  that  forcibly  said :  'I'm 
determined  to  know  you  f  and  that  miffed  me,  you  see, 
into  being  rather  spitefully  familiar.  It  was  the  kind  of 
thing  to  take  with  the  crowd,  too  ;  making  them  believe 
that  I  was  well  known  in  town." 

Geoffrey  passed  a  hand  over  his  brow,  as  though 
striving  to  reconcile  something  present  with  something 
past,  and  then  abruptly  turned  toward  the  private  apart- 
ment beyond. 

"  If  I  am  to  be  of  any  service  to  you,"  said  he,  dogged- 
ly, "  of  course  you  have  more  to  tell  me.     Come  this  way." 

Dr.  Canary  followed  him  readily  enough  into  the  rear 
room,  where,  with  much  ease  of  manner,  he  deposited  his 
slouched  hat  on  the  table,  and  drew  a  chair  to  the  side  of 
the  stove  opposite  his  unwilling  host. ■ 

"  Bless  my  heart,  this  is  snug,  Mr.  Dapple,"  he  remark- 
ed, casting  an  approving  glance  about  the  room.  "  There's 
a  harmonious  union  of  labor  and  rest — a  bedstead  and  a 
work-bench,  a  teakettle  and  a  gluepot.  Do  I  detect 
woman's  hand  here  ?  No,  I  do  not ;  for  woman's  taste 
would  never  leave  that  window-curtain  bundled  aloft  in 
that  useless  style.  You  must  be  a  bachelor,  sir,  like  my- 
self." 

At  his  mention  of  the  curtain,  though  it  was  made 
without  emphasis  of  manner,  the  Toyman  sat  rigid  in  his 
chair  and  eyed  him  with  a  newly  questioning  stare. 

"  I  say,"  repeated  the  intruder,  not  seeming  to  notice 


THE   MYSTERY    OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL.  o? 

the  effect,  "that  you  must  be  a  bachelor,  like  myself. 
That  staircase  from  the  back  of  the  store,  which  I  noticed 
as  we  passed  it,  must  lead  up  to  some  other  apartment  of 
yours.  Say  you  would  like  to  rent  out  a  room  up-stairs, 
say  you  would  like  to  have  a  man  who  could  appreciate 
you  for  company  every  night — I  don't  know  but  I  could 
be  tempted  to  come,  myself." 

"I  have  a  daughter,"  was  the  Toyman's  mechanical 
response. 

"  Happy  to  hear  it,"  went  on  the  ex-mountebank.  "  I'm 
her  most  obedient.  Pleasure  before  business,  you  know,  sir ; 
and  so,  before  we  talk  about  inventions,  I'll  just  mention 
to  you  that  I'm  not  the  buffoon  you  may  have  taken  me 
for  to-day.  I  was  educated  to  physic,  but  have  had  mis- 
fortunes and  been  compelled  to  do  almost  anything  for  a 
living.  You  cannot  choose  your  own  opportunities  at 
forty.  That  painted  wagon,  furniture,  costume,  and  tooth- 
powder  belong  wholly  to  a  quack-medicine  firm  of  note, 
who  were  greatly  taken  with  my  name  and  glibness,  and 
hired  me  to  act  the  c  Great  Odontolator'  with  their  dentri- 
fice.  This  has  been  my  first  day  in  that  character,  and 
shall  be  my  last ;  for  I  won't  stand  their  putting  a  disguis- 
ed Irishman  over  me  to  watch  their  property.  The  poet- 
ry, alone,  belongs  to  me  ;  and,  although  it's  my  own  com- 
position, has  been  attributed,  by  good  judges,  to  Tupper 
and  Titcomb.  Literature,  you  know,  like  an  extra  stock 
of  babies,  is  sure  to  be  the  gift  of  a  poor  devil  who  could 
starve  just  as  quick  without  it.  I'm  decidedly  literary, 
and  if  I  had  a  combined  bed-room  and  study  on  the  upper- 
floor  of  a  house  like  this,  I  might  let  fly  a  few  verses  that 
would  tell  for  you  about  Chrism  as — 

By  Dapple's  genius,  even  Toys  become 

The  tongue  of  Science  where  she  else  were  dumb, 


38  TIIE    MYSTERY    OF    THE    WALKING    DOLL. 

And  childhood,  taking  them  in  playful  part, 

Finds  theni  the  monitors  of  purest  Art. 

See  how  his  Dolls,  of  wood,  of  wax,  or  delf, 

In  looks  and  action  mimic  nature's  self; 

They  wink,  they  bow;   'Papa,'  'Mamma'  they  talk; 

They  laugh,  they  cry,  they  everything  but — walk." 

With  this  felicitous  dedication  of  an  autobiographical 
sketch  in  which  his  manner  had  been  a  lively  combina- 
tion of  communicative  frankness  and  sheer  impudence, 
Canary  was  kind  enough  to  take  breath  and  give  his  host 
a  chance  to  speak. 

Geoffrey  sat  listening  to  the  rigmarole  like  a  man  in  a 
startling  dream,  and  half  arose  from  his  chair  at  its  conclu- 
sion, in  apparent  mind  to  either  leave  his  guest  or  knock 
him  down. 

"  Who  are  you  ?"  were  his  words  again. 

"  Well,  sir,"  was  the  reply,  begun  in  perfect  coolness, 
"as  you  do  not  appear  to  find  that  question  fully  answer- 
ed yet,  I'll  tell  you  all  that  there  is  left  for  me  to  say.  In 
conclusion  of  my  many  adventures,  from  Physic  to  Poet- 
ry, I'm  am  embryo  dramatist,  with  a  new  original  play  at 
my  finger  ends ;  and  wish  to  procure,  through  your  skill, 
to  aid  my  stage  machinery,  a  model  in  petto  of  a  Walking 
Doll.—"' 

"  Yes,  yes"  —  interrupted  the  Toyman,  trembling 
strangely. 

"  Ah,  now  you  take  an  interest.  'Tis  well.  "My  play, 
Mr.  Dapple,  is  to  have  a  Walking  Doll  in  it ;  or,  at  least, 
the  incipient  machinery  of  such  an  article.  The  machin- 
ery must,  of  course,  be  small  in  bulk.  About  as  large  ae — 
let  me  see — about  the  size,  say,  of  that  bagging  fold  up 
there  in  your  window-curtain." 

"What   do   you   mean?"    shouted   Geoffrey   Dapple, 


THE   MYSTEET   OF   TniC   WALKING   DOLL.  39 

springing  from  his  chair,  and  taking  a  step  toward  the 
other.     u  Tell  me  where  I  have  seen  you  before !" 

"My  play,'1  went  on  the  imperturbable  talker,  smiling 
complacently  up,  across  the  stove,  at  the  working  features 
of  the  Toyman, — "  my  play  opens  with  a  scene  in  a  popular 
bar-room.  Great  chance  there,  by  the  way,  for  fine  points  : 
Real  beer-pumps ;  Genuine  punches  made  and  passed 
around  to  the  audience ;  bar-keeper  made  up  to  represent 
a  Celebrated  Member  of  the  City  Government.  Time  of 
Action,  four  years  ago.  Enter  Man  with  black  hair  and 
poor  clothes,  who  wishes  to  be  trusted  for  beverage.  '  No 
Trust,'  and  Man  walks  disconsolately  out  again  to  side- 
walk, and  there  pauses  to  soliloquize.  He  is  a  physician 
ont  of  practice ;  has  no  money,  no  sleeping-place,  and  no 
more  credit  for  liquor.  What  shall  he  do  ?  "Where  shall 
he  go  ?  He  has  seen  a  shabby,  elderly  man  pass  him  on 
the  street  with  a  kind  of  hangdog  look,  and  slink  into  a 
toyshop  two  or  three  doors  below.  "While  he  goes  on  solilo- 
quizing, there  comes  a  sudden  cry  for  '  Help '  from  the 
toy-shop,  and  the  Man — having  nothing  else  to  do — flies 
to  the  rescue — " 

u  I  know  you  now  !"  screamed  Geoffrey  Dapple,  ad- 
vancing with  uplifted  and  shaking  hands  upon  his  tor- 
mentor, either  to  tear  him  to  pieces,  or — kneel  to  him  for 
mercy ! 

"  Yes  !"  answered  the  playwright,  rising  to  his  feet  and 
sternly  confronting  him,  "You  saw  me  before,  Old  Man, 
on  the  day  when  your  Wife  went  to  the  hospital." 


40  COME    WHEEL,    COME    "  WHOA. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

COME   WHEEL,    COME    "  WHOA/ 


a  _.__  .  v 


WHO  has  not  seen  theFifth  Avenue,  just  before  sun- 
set, on  a  softly  hazy  Saturday  afternoon  in  late  and 
golden  October,  can  imagine  but  haltingly  the  more  than 
regal  Pride  and  Glory  of  New  York.  The  rectilinear 
miles  of  rectilinear  palaces  on  either  side  that  noble  ar- 
chitectural perspective ;  the  endless,  dense  procession,  ever 
doubling  on  itself,  of  shining  horses  stepping  high  in  the 
arrogance  of  jeweled  harness,  of  carriages  looming  and 
glittering  in  every  pattern  of  millionairy  state,  from  the 
lofty  four-in-hander  with  two  footmen  in  silver  and  blue, 
to  the  mere  enameled  web-work  of  the  deer-limbed  Trot- 
ter's driver,  with  its  sparkling  fairy  wheels  spinning  the 
sunlight  into  hub-lightning ;  the  walking  iancy-dress  ball 
of  the  flanking  borders  of  glaring  sidewalk,  along  which 
move  innumerably  to  and  fro  the  kaleidoscopic  colors  of 
promenading  female  fashion,  tripping  pertly  to  the  Cas- 
tanet Polka  of  a  thousand  thoroughbred  hoofs,  and  punc- 
tuated sententiously  by  black  Admiration-points  in  the 
shape  of  broadcloth  dandies;  and  all  these,  catching  now 
the  slender  shadow  of  a  marble  spire,  and  now  the  full  ra- 
diance reflected  from  snowy  palace-fronts  ; — and*all  these, 
reaching  and  moving,  in  ever-varying  face  and  prance  and 
roll  and  dance,  to  and  from  the  world's  garden-map  of 
Central  Park,  where  Nature's  Autumn  motley  and  Dod- 


COME    WHEEL,    COME    kV  WHOA.  '  41 

worth's  music  blazon  and  merry-make  the  mightiest  of 
Vanity  Fairs ; — form  such  a  scene  as  only  Paris  and  the  Boi3 
de  Boulogne  can  duplicate. 

Perraitte  divis  cc&tera. 

Then  consider  the  human  face  and  form  as  they  find 
their  highest  characterizations  and  dignity  in  that  magni- 
ficent moving  panorama  of  costly  enjoyment.  Where  is 
that  other  city  containing  such  splendid  rich  old  men,  with 
their  fine  broad  shoulders,  erect  military  bearing,  Napo- 
leonic grey  mustachios,  and  scrupulously  elegant  dress- 
ing ?  Where  is  that  other  jeunesse  dorte  so  immaculate 
in  hats  and  neck-scarfs,  and  so  brittle  of  legs  ?  Where 
else  shall  we  find  matrons,  dowagers,  and  last-year  brides, 
so  queenly  in  satins  and  diamonds,  and  so  various  of  noses 
and  finger-nails  ?  Where  else  shall  we  look  for  budding; 
womanhood  so  bisque-mantle-ornament-like  in  toilet,  and 
so  unflinching  of  countenance  and  back-hair  ? 

Mark,  too,  how  the  richest  equipages  in  all  the  grand 
tenue  are  those  of  the  rich  republic's  honored  sons  and 
daughters  whose  genius  has  immortalized  her  intellectual 
page,  whose  patriotism  has  illustrated  her  history,  whose 
philanthropy  has  stretched  the  hand  of  help  to  myriads 
of  her  lowly  ones,  whose  stern  Republican  principle  has 
shrunk  from  no  sacrifice  of  wealth  and  station  to  win 
freedom  and  manhood  for  the  poor  slave,  whose  meek 
virtues  and  Democratic  earnestness  have  illustrated  the 
Christian  charity  and  moral  force  belonging  naturally  to 
a  Free  people.  Here,  in  this  sumptuous  phaBton,  lolls 
luxuriantly  my  Lady  Groceress,  whose  lord's  title  is 
stenciled  on  a  million  of  soap-boxes.  Yonder,  behind 
two  bays  worth  as  many  thousands  as  they  have  legs, 
sits  the  illustrious  Member  of  Assembly  who,  in  one  day, 


42  COME   WHEEL,    COME   "  WHOA." 

manufactured  enough  naturalization  certificates  to  elect 
him,  and,  in  one  month  of  office,  earned  more  than  those 
horses.  Guiding  that  priceless  four-in-hand,  to  the  left, 
appears  an  ex-stage-driver,  enriched  in  a  night  by  petro- 
leum; his  state  eclipsed  only  by  an  adjacent  four-in-hand 
under  the  supreme  control  of  a  noble-looking  man  whose 
name  is  honorable  in  Ethiopian  Minstrelsy.  Near  that 
comer,  with  her  trotting  ponies,  beams  the  favorite 
Actress,  able  to  keep  her  stable  and  brown-stone  mansion 
on  thirty  dollars  a  week.  Proudly  skilful  with  the  gold- 
mounted  tandem  now  approaching,  is  the  great  tailor  of 
Blank  Street,  who  dexterously  takes  away  the  lead  in  the 
line  from  the  gorgeous  landau  of  an  immortal  Pill  man. 
And,  crowded  over  near  the  curb,  come  the  founder  of  a 
beneficent  public  Charity,  the  author  of  a  noble  Book, 
the  ministering  calico  angel  of  a  dozen  war-hospitals,  the 
inventor  of  a  mechanism  by  which  the  whole  world  is  a 
gainer :  all  riding  in  one — omnibus. 

On  a  golden  Saturday  afternoon  in  October,  when  the 
Avenue  thus  brilliantly  epitomized  the  glories  of  the  Re- 
public, a  handsome  close-carriage  might  have  been  seen 
taking  a  brisk  start  ahead  of  the  main  Park-ward  pro- 
cession, near  Forty-second  Street,  and  rolling  rather  faster 
than  the  usual  courtly  pace  toward  a  point  ahead,  where 
the  heaped  gravel  and  stone  for  a  new  building  left  but  a 
narrow  passage-way  for  vehicles.  Perhaps  the  liveried 
coachman  wished  to  gain  the  pass  in  advance  of  carriages 
coming  the  other  way.  At  any  rate,  such  would  have 
been  his  advantage  but  for  unexpected  event. 

Side  by  side  with  the  carriage,  and  going  in  the  same 
direction,  was  a  common  dray,  drawn  by  an  ancient, 
buckskin,  wall-eyed  horse,  and  carrying  two  persons.  Of 
these  latter,  the  first,  or  Drayman,  was  a  tall  stately 


COME   WHEEL,    COME    "WHOA."  43 

young  man,  wearing  an  enormous  slouched  black  som- 
brero, a  faded  blue  military  overcoat,  and  a  pair  of  bone- 
rimmed  evesrlasses.  The  second,  sitting  on  the  extreme 
tail  of  the  dray,  with  his  lower  limbs  dangling,  was  a 
shapeless,  red-haired  lad,  audibly  eating  a  defective  apple. 
Leaning  with  his  elbows  on  the  iron  bar  between  the  two 
front  uprights  of  his  dray,  the  drayman  seemed  lost  in 
contemplation  of  the  sunset  sky.  Ours  is  not  an  opaque- 
blue  sky,  like  that  which  was  gotten  up  for  Italy  by  the 
Old  Masters  and  has  remained  up  ever  since ;  nor  can 
our  sunsets  be  equal  to  those  which  Americans  visit  the 
south  of  France  to  see.  Indeed,  owing  to  the  youth  of 
the  country,  our  sunsets  are  often  so  crude,  that  many 
native  painters,  in  velvet  coats,  decline  to  make  their 
American  sunsets  in  the  remotest  degree  like  them  ;  and 
the  azure  of  our  main  firmament  is  such  an  insipid  hue, 
that  our  best  Art  repositories  very  properly  refuse  to  keep 
any  pigment  at  all  like  it  on  hand.  Yet,  the  sunset 
visible  as  you  looked  up  the  Avenue  that  afternoon,  was 
really  creditable  in  some  of  its  coloring ;  and  the  wrapt 
dreamer  on  the  dray,  solemnly  and  soothingly  danced 
into  lethargy  as  he  was  by  the  monotonous  jumping 
movement  of  his  vehicle,  gazed  fixedly  at  it  through  his 
eyeglasses,  forgetful  of  all  grosser  objects.  As  a  conse- 
quence, the  buckskin  horse,  believing  that  all  was  open 
country  on  his  wall-eyed  side,  made  a  sudden  weak  bolt 
to  that  side,  and  brought  one  of  the  dray  wheels  into 
sharp  collision  with  the  handsome  close  carriage. 

The  shock  hurled  the  unprepared  drayman  flat  upon 
his  back  between  the  rungs,  jerked  the  shapeless  boy  into 
a  street-puddle,  and  summarily  stopped  both  vehicles ; 
whereupon  a  female  cry  of  alarm  was  heard  from  the 
carriage,  and  a  pleasant-looking  elderly  gentleman  thrust 


44  COME   WHEEL,    COME    "  WHOA.'' 

his  bead  through  a  window  to  inquire  what  the  disaster 
was. 

Slowly  arose  the  fallen  drayman,  to  a  sitting  position, 
from  thence  unhurriedly  swinging  himself  to  a  standing 
attitude  on  the  Belgian  pavement.  Haughtily,  too,  lie 
proceeded  to  put  a  blanket  upon  his  horse ;  and  then, 
returning  to  where  the  lad,  much  incommoded  by  the 
extreme  length  of  the  faded  blue  military  overcoat  which 
be,  too,  wore,  was  climbing  back  upon  the  dray,  asked 
the  question : 

"  Are  you  hurt  much,  Orlonzo  ?" 

"I'm  all  hunky-dory,  Gen'ral,"  answered  the  youth, 
resuming  his  temporarily  interrupted  apple. 

"I'd  like  to  know  if  yere  not  goin'  to  get  yer  wheels 
away  from  mine,  thin,  Misther  Take-it- Aisy  ?"  roared  the 
coachman,  greatly  exasperated  by  such  deliberate  pro- 
ceedings. 

Him  the  young  drayman  ignored,  as  not  being  in  ex- 
istence, and  still  addressed  the  youth : 

"Orlonzo,  the  phrase  'hunky-dory'  is  a  vulgarism. 
Never  use  it  again." 

Leaving  the  child  much  impressed  by  his  rebuke,  the 
speaker  now  advanced  toward  the  vehicle  interlocked 
with  his  own  ;  the  stoppage  of  which  had  compelled  the 
stoppage,  also,  of  some  twenty-five  hundred  equipages 
in  line  behind  it,  and  nearly  a  fifth  of  that  number 
before. 

"I  perceive,"  remarked  the  drayman,  coldly,  addres- 
sing the  slightly  astonished  old  gentleman  at  the  carriage- 
window,  "  that  my  wheel  has  abrased  one  of  your?,  and 
defaced  the  armorial  panel  of  your  door.  I  beg  leave  to 
apologize  for  the  offense  of  which  my  horse  has  been 
guilty,  and  will  trouble  you  to  exchange  cards  with  me." 


J   5J 


COME    WHEEL,    COME    "  WHOA.  45 

"  Cards  !  What  for,  my  man  ?"  ejaculated  the  old  gen- 
tleman, blankly  amazed. 

"  That  we  may  know  where  to  find  each  other — '  my 
man,'  "  was  the  rather  stern  retort,  as  the  drayman  drew 
a  card  from  his  breast  and  gravely  handed  it  in.  "  You 
will  observe  that  my  address  is :  Jack  Aster,  Drayman. 
License  41144.  Kesidence  22  Dame  Street.  Oblige 
me  with  your  card,  that  I  may  know  where  to  call  and 
pay  for  the  damage  I  have  done." 

"  My  good  fellow,"  cried  the  gentleman,  half  crazed 
by  the  shouts  of  a  hundred  coachmen  behind,  "pray  do 
get  your  cart  out  of  the  way,  and  let  us  go  on  !" 

"I  must  know  where  you  live — my  'good  fellow 
persisted  the  unmoved  Aster,  folding  his  arms,  and  not 
heeding  the  voices  of  the  horsemen,  the  thunder  of  the 
coachmen,  and  the  shouting.  "  I  may  be  a  poor  man, 
and  you  a  rich ;  but  I'll  pay  you  as  exactly  as  I  would 
a  brother-drayman.  Your  residence,  Sir?  I  must 
have  it." 

"This  carriage  is  not  mine,"  sputtered  the  old  gentle- 
man, too  much  excited  about  the  awful  blockade  they 
were  causing,  to  hesitate  at  any  earthly  concession  likely 
to  rid  him  of  the  terrible  questioner.  "  It  belongs  to  my 
friend,  Mr.  Lardner,  of  Lardner  Place.  Now  do  let  us 
go  on." 

"  That  is  sufficient,  Sir.  I  shall  do  myself  the  honor 
to  call  this  evening." 

As  he  spoke,  the  drayman  lifted  his  sombrero  in  a 
distant  bow;  then  strode  to  his  horse's  head  and  so 
turned  the  sagacious  animal,  that  his  wheel  was  disen- 
gaged from  that  of  the  carriage,  and  the  latter  left  free. 

Away  sped  the  carriage,  whose  coachman  had  never 
before  realized  how  dreadful  a  thing  it  is,  and  how  pro- 


a  ™~t™  i  " 


46  COME    WHEEL,    COME    "  wnOA. 

vocative  of  apoplexy  from  suppression,  to  occupy  a 
position  forbidding  one  to  swear.  Along  followed  the 
endless  line  of  other  delayed  equipages,  several  of  their 
coachmen  glaring  at  Aster  as  they  would  not  have  dared 
to  glare  at  a  rich  man.  But  he  of  the  dray  reflectively 
unblanketed  his  horse  again  as  though  no  such  things 
as  coachmen  came  from  Ireland,  and  abstractedly  re- 
mounted his  vehicle,  to  be  lost  in  the  sunset  once  more. 

In  the  scratched  and  liberated  carriage,  however,  as  it 
rolled  onward  with  the  others  to  the  Park,  he  was  not 
equivalently  forgotten  ;  for  the  astounded  old  gentleman 
only  sank  back  within  the  velvet  cushions  to  stare  in- 
creduously  at  a  tall,  handsome  blonde  occupying  the  op- 
posite seat,  and  express  his  feelings  in  disjointed  phrases. 

"  Upon  my  word  !"  ejaculated  he.  "  To  think  of  such 
a  thing !  A  drayman  talking  like  that,  and  carrying  visit- 
ing cards  with  crest  and  monogram  on  them  !  What  are  we 
coming  to,  I  should  like  to  know  !"  And  he  added ; 
noticing  that  the  young  lady  also  exhibited  some  excite- 
ment, and  held  the  card  in  her  hand :  "  I  greatly  fear, 
Miss  Lardner,  that  this  absurd  accident  has  spoiled  the 
ride  for  you.     Really,  the  fellow  treated  us  like  children  !" 

Lucy  Lardner  was  always  very  pretty ;  but  the  vary- 
ing flush  now  playing  at  Aurora  Borealis  on  her  cheeks, 
and  the  bright,  changing  light  preluding  a  full  dawn  in 
the  blue  heaven  of  her  eyes,  made  her  archly  beautiful. 

"Mr.  Gayle,"  she  said,  leaning  toward  that  gentleman, 
and  speaking  rapidly,  "  I  know  this  Crest  and  Monogram 
almost  as  well  as  I  know  Pa's ;  and  I  knew  the  drayman, 
too." 

u  Miss  Lardner,  you  as-tound  me  !" 

"  Yes,  I  peeped  from  behind  the  curtain,  here,  and  re- 
membered Mr.  Aster  the  very  moment  he  lifted  his  hat. 


COME    WHEEL,    COME    "  WHOA."  47 

I  almost  believe,  that,  if  Pa  had  been  with  us,  he  would 
have  asked  Mr.  Aster  to  dine  with  us  this  evening.'' 

"Eh!"  exclaimed  Mr.  Gayle,  smiling  in  the  imper- 
fect and  ghastly  manner  of  one  who  believes  that  a  rich 
joke  is  being  practiced  upon  him,  but  don't  see  it  yet. 

"Indeed,  sir,  I  can  assure  yon,"  continued  Lucy,  earn- 
estly, "  that,  in  any  other  place,  or  under  any  other  cir- 
cumstances, I  should  have  given  the  owner  of  this  card 
an  opportunity  to  recognize  me." 

There  was  such  hopeless  incongruity  suggested  by  the 
possibility  of  an  intimate  acquaintance  between  the  high- 
bred occupant  of  a  full  feminine  carriage-toilet,  and  the 
cart-driving  wearer  of  bone  eyeglasses  and  a  faded  blue 
military  overcoat,  that  the  old  gentleman  began  to  doubt 
his  own  sanity. 

"  My  dear  young  lady,  pray  pardon  my  last  rude  ex- 
clamation ;  but  are  you  really  in  earnest  ?" 

"  Entirely  so,  Mr.  Gayle.  You  may  be  still  more  sur- 
prised when  I  inform  you,  that  Mr.  Aster's  father  is  Pa's 
half-brother,  though  they  have  been  alienated  for  years." 

"  Dear  me  !     And  he  a  drayman  !" 

"  But  not  the  less  a  gentleman  by  birth,  for  that !" 
retorted  Lucy,  quickly.  "  I  didn't  know,  though,"  she 
added,  with  a  graver  thoughtfulness,  "  that  he  had  fallen 
so  low  in  his  necessities  since  bis  return  from  the  War. 
How  shameful  it  is  for  That  Woman  to  make  his  own 
dying  old  father  an  enemy  to  him !"  This  with  great 
intensity. 

"  Why,  here's  a  romance  !"  commented  the  old  gentle- 
man, plucking  up  a  more  vivacious  spirit  to  hide  his  re- 
cent want  of  well-bred  balance.  ."  Since  you  have  so 
kindly  admitted  me  to  the  latest  Chapter,  Miss  Lucy, 
you  ought  to  tell  me  what  went  before,  as  a  matter  of 


48  COME    WHEEL,    COME    "  WHOA." 

dramatic  justice.  Now  that  I  think  it  over,  the  name 
of  Aster  is  not  altogether  new  to  me.  There  is  a  Phila- 
delphia family  of  that  name — spelt  with  an  '  e.'  " 

"  That  is  the  very  family,"  cried  Lucy.     "  The  father 
married  a  second  wife,  a  scheming  widow  with  a  grown 
son,  some  seven  years  ago,  and  she  turned  him  so  com- 
pletely against  his  own  two  sons,  that  they  were  fairly 
driven  from  their  home  in  less  than  two  years  after  the 
marriage.     You  have  just  seen  one  of  the  .sons,  and  he  is 
the  only  one  we  know  much  about.     Five  years  ago  he 
accidently  dropped  into  Pa's  place  clown  town  to  ask  for 
a  position  as  bookkeeper,  and  Pa  recognized  him  by  his 
name  and  story,  and   made  him  come  home  with  him. 
He  reluctantly  stayed  with  us  a  few  days,  and  seemed  to 
feel  what  he  called  his  '  crushing  Dependent  position  ?  so 
keenly,  that  we  never  dared  oppose  him  when  he  resolved 
to  join  the  army,  or  navy.     He  slipped  off  one  morning 
without  even  saying  ■  good-bye,'  and  must  have  enlisted 
at  once..  And  now  that  he  is  back  again,  I  suppose  he 
has  become  a  drayman  rather  than  accept  anybody's  as- 
sistance.    And  I  admire  him  for  it,  Mr.  Gayle !     Yes,  I 
admire  him  for  being  manly  enough  to  drive  a  cart  rather 
than  play  the  martyr  at  the  cost -of  his  friends.     There  is 
more  gentlemanly  pride  in  it  than  could  be  shown  in  any 
other  way.     I'm  so  sure  of  it,  that,  if  he  were  here  now, 
even  in  his  drayman's  frock,  I  should  deem  it  indelicate 
to  remind  him  of  his  brief  stay  with  us,  even  to  introduce 
myself  as  a  friend.     It  was  fortunate  for  you,  Mr.  Gayle, 
that  he  found  out  whose  carriage  this  is  from  you,  and 
said   that  he  should  call  this  evening,  (how  proudly  he 
said  it,  too  !) ;  for,  otherwise,  I  should  have  put  my  head 
out,   too,  and  called   him  by  name  right   there  in   the 
crowd !" 


COME   WHEEL,    COME    "  WHOA."  49 

"  All,  look  out,  look  out,  Miss  Lucy  Lardner !"  return- 
ed the  old  gentleman,  not  unpleased  to  gain  such  a  fam- 
ous story  of  real  life  for  his  next  dinner-party,  even 
though  he  must  employ  assumed  names  in  repeating  it ; 
*'  There  is  too  much  romance  about  this  model  young 
drayman  to  make  him  a  safe  protege  for  a  tender  hearted 
young  lady." 

"  Oh,  you  know  he's  a  kind  of  cousin,  Mr.  Gayle." 

Mr.  Gayle  might  have  explained  to  her  that  a  Cousin 
of  that  indefinite  relation,  is  rather  more  dangerous  to 
feminine  peace  of  mind  than  a  foreign  Count,  or  a  hor- 
ridly homely  man  with  the  reputation  of  having  brought 
ruin  to  half-a-dozen  beauties.  He  might  have  told  her, 
that  the  assiduous  Romeo,  who  shrinks  chilled,  and  in- 
clined to  drink,  from  a  maidenly  offer  to  love  him  "  as  a 
dear  Brother,"  begins  to  smoke  in  the  parlor  and  makes 
himself  at  home  around  waists,  when  the  same  Juliet  in- 
differently mentions  him  as  a  distant  Cousin. 

But  time  was  not  allowed  for  that ;  inasmuch  as  their 
carriage  had  now  reached  the  Terrace  in  the  Park  ;  and 
the  music  of  the  band,  in  its  adjacent  brilliant  pagoda  on 
the  Mall,  reminded  them  to  sink  silently  back  in  their 
cushions,  with  that  preternaturally  rigid  expression  of 
countenance  which  induces  the  stranger  in  Central  Park 
to  fancy  that  there  must  be  a  man  with  a  camera  on 
some  knoll  within  range,  for  whose  photographic  practice 
all  occupants  of  stylish  equipages  sit  mute  and  grim  at 
the  sound  of  the  trumpet. 


50  RUNG    AND   RANK. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

RUNG     AND     EANK. 

ri^O  Lardner  Place  Mr.  Aster  repaired  at  about  eight  ' 

I  o'clock  on  the  same  evening,  and  there  rang  the 
bell  of  a  brown  stone  residence  shaped  as  nearly  like  a 
magnified  packing-case  as  the  architect  conld  make  it  for 
the  money.  Still  wearing  his  mighty  sombrero  far  down 
over  his  nose,  flourishing  a  long,  old-fashioned  Spanish 
cloak,  or  Wrapper,  from  his  broad  shoulders,  and  pulling 
his  moustache  impatiently  with  his  left  hand,  he  might 
have  been  taken  for  a  desperate  Academy  of  Design  artist 
come  to  paint  a  portrait  by  violence,  or  a  Tribune  re- 
porter arrived  to  learn  all  the  revolting  details  of  a  fash- 
ionable elopement  from  the  bereaved  father  himself,  but 
for  the  heavy  cane,  modeled  exactly  after  a  cart-rung, 
which  he  carried  over  his  right  shoulder  like  a  gun. 

The  bell  was  answered  by  an  old  family  footman  in 
clerical  black,  who,  upon  discerning  the  visitor's  face  by 
the  light  of  the  hall  burner,  both  bowed  and  smiled  in  a 
manner  plainly  anticipatory  of  a  familiar  greeting. 

"  How  are  you  Johnny,"  said  Aster,  to  humor  his  ap- 
parent servility.     "  Is  Lardner  at  home  ?" 

ISTow,  the  real  name  of  the  aged  servitor  was  not 
Johnny,  at  all,  but  Alphonse,  and  there  was  an  alarming 
novelty  in  the  sound  of  his  master's  name  without  the 
prefix  courteous ;  but,  in  the  lack  of  opportunity  for  de- 


RUNG   AXD   RANK.  51 

tailed  explanation,  it  was  only  left  for  him  to  invite  the 
sententious  guest  into  a  reception  room. 

"  Mr.  Aster,  I  should  say,  sir,  if  I  remember  rightly  V 
he  timidly  said,  before  going  to  announce. 

"  Ha  !  You  know  me,  do  you  ?"  muttered  the  drayman, 
looking  keenly  at  him  through  his  eyeglasses.  "  Yes, 
tell  him  Aster." 

Though  still  very  palpably  a  victim  of  confused  per- 
ceptions, the  footman  departed  without  a  card  ;  presently 
•returning  with  the  information  that  Mr.  Lardner  would  be 
happy  to  see  Mr.  Aster  immediately  in  the  Third  Parlor. 

"  Then  lead  on,  boy,"  observed  Aster,  seemingly  too 
busy  with  his  own  thoughts  to  be  conscious  that  the 
"  boy  "  might  have  been  his  grandfather.  "  It  is  rather 
handsome  in  Lardner  to  ask  a  man  of  my  estate  into  a 
parlor.     Lead  on." 

Passing  through  a  fine  hall,  panelled  in  walnut,  and 
ornamented  with  bronzes,  he  was  conducted  into  the 
Third,  or  Extension,  Parlor  of  a  handsome  suite,  where 
a  grave  and  portly  middle-aged  gentleman,  iron-grey  of 
hair  and  unbending  of  collar,  was  seated  in  sumpuous 
cushioned  chair,  holding  a  newspaper. 

"John  !"  exclaimed  this  gentleman,  rising  as  the  dray- 
man entered,  "  Are  you  indeed  the  same  John  Aster  ?" 

The  removal  of  the  young  man's  hat  from  his  curly 
black  head  allowed  a  better  view  of  the  action  of  his 
eyes,  which  opened  wide  at  this  welcoming  speech,  and 
became  intensely  stationary  at  the  hearty  hand-shaking 
thereafter. 

"  My  name,  sir,  is  J.  Aster ;  and  I  believe  that  I  am 
the  same  to-day  as  yesterday." 

"  Sit  down,  then,  John,  and  lay  aside  your  cloak,"  pro- 
ceeded Mr.  Lardner,  a  shade  less  genially. 


52  RUNG   AND   RANK. 

"  I  prefer  to  wear  it,  sir,"  was  Aster's  reply.  "  I  will 
take  a  seat,  however : — not  because  it  is  a  conventional 
condescension  in  you  to  ask  me  ;  but  because  there  is  no 
good  reason  why  I,  as  a  Man,  should  remain  standing  be- 
fore you,  as  a  Man.  Our  time,  I  presume,  is  equally 
valuable  " — here  he  drew  a  pocket-book  as  large  as  a 
good-sized  volume  from  under  his  cloak — "and  I  will, 
therefore,  at  once  hand  over  to  you  the  stamps  requisite 
to  repair  the  damage  I  did  to  your  carriage  this  after- 
noon. Be  kind  enough  to  make  me  out  a  bill  and  re- 
ceipt it." 

From  the  chair  which  he  had  resumed,  Mr.  Lardner 
stared  at  him  in  haughty  amazement. 

"  There  is  no  necessity  for  any  payment,  John.  I  shall 
accept  none.  The  carriage  is  not  injured.  My  daughter  " 
— with  a  slight  motion  of  his  head  toward  the  second  par- 
lor, beyond  the  folding  doors,  whence  the  tinkling  of  a 
piano-forte  sounded  at  intervals, — "  has  told  me  how  she 
met  you  on  the  Avenue  this  afternoon,  and  prepared  me 
for  your  presence  here  this  evening.  I  inferred  that  your 
bearing  after  the  accident  was  due  to  the  fact  that  you 
did  not  recognize  her." 

Aster  pulled  his  moustache,  gazed  deliberately  from 
one  object  of  furniture  to  another  all  around  the  room, 
settled  his  bone  eyeglasses  anew,  and,  finally  surveying 
the  gentleman  with  glassy  intentness,  slowly  put  away 
his  pocket-book. 

"  Is  your  daughter  white-haired  with  age  ?"  he  asked, 
sneeringly  almost.  "  Does  she  wear  a  Fall-overcoat,  and 
speak  baritone  ?" 

"  Sir !  What  do  you  mean  ?"  snorted  the  rich  man, 
sitting  bolt  upright  and  glaring  wrathfully. 

"  I  mean  this,''  snapped  the  drayman,  returning  the 


RUNG    AND   RANK.  53 

glare :  "  that  the  person  who  addressed  me  from  your 
carriage  had  those  attributes,  and  struck  me,  sir,  as  be- 
ing an  over-dressed  and  fussy  old  snob." 

"  That  was  my  worthy  old  friend,  Mr.  Gayle,  who  was 
polite  enough  to  escort  my  daughter  to  the  Park,  sir !" 
thundered  the  indignant  father,  both  outraged  and  as- 
tounded. "  How  dare  you  utter  such  language  in  my 
house  !" 

"  Dare  !"  repeated  Aster,  his  breast  swelling  and  his 
eyes  shooting  fire.  Then,  in  an  instant  his  head  sank 
upon  his  chest,  his  hands  dropped  nerveless  at  his  sides, 
and  his  tone  sank  so  low  as  to  be  almost  inaudible. 
u  Lardner,"  —  That  gentleman  started. —  "  Lardner,  you 
must  not  mind  my  hasty  speech.  In  these  few  past 
years  my  soul  has  been  so  embittered  by  the  malevolence 
of  Woman  and  the  injustice  of  Man,  that  I  can  not  look 
even  upon  the  least  intellectual  and  significant  of  my 
race  without  boiling  hatred.  Consequently,  I  hate  you 
and  your  friends  ;  and,  to  go  to  the  other  extreme,  I  hate 
Myself." 

"  Certainly  your  manner  is  greatly  changed,"  replied 
the  gentleman,  stiffly.  "  I  am  hardly  sure  that  I  should 
overlook  such  unparalleled  talk,  John.  When  did  you 
get  back  from  the  war  ?" 

Again  Mr.  Aster  looked  slowly  all  around  the  room, 
and  again  concluded  the  survey  by  eyeing  his  questioner 
stonilv. 

Mi 

u  Since  you  are  so  sure  that  I  have  been  to  the  war, 
you  may  as  well  know  that  I  returned  a  year  ago." 

"  Sure  ?  Why,  we  could  guess  as  much  from  your 
own  words  before  you  went.  And  for  what  cause  have 
you  been  so  long  in  the  city  without  letting  us,  your  rela- 
tives, hear  from  you  ?" 


54  RUNG   AND  RANK. 

"  Hay  ! "  ejaculated  Aster,  with  a  jump  in  his 
chair. 

Mr.  Lardner  also  jumped  at  the  shot-like  sound,  espe- 
cially as  the  rung-shaped  heavy  cane  of  the  drayman 
simultaneously  fell  from  between  its  owner's  knees  with 
a  crash. 

"  I  speak  English,"  continued  he,  very  testily.  u  Are 
you  deaf?  If  that  cane  had  fallen  on  my  corn,  I  should 
have  thrown  it  out  of  the  window.  What  am  I  to  make 
of  such  undntiful,  such  inexplicable  conduct,  which  not 
even  your  great  misfortune  in  life^can  fully  excuse  ?" 

Up  rose  the  drayman  to  his  feet,  and,  with  one  arm 
thrust  within  his  cloak,  looked  fiercely  down  upon  the 
rich  man. 

"  It  seems,"  said  he,  breathing  quickly,  "  that  any  one, 
and  every  one,  can  make  a  mock  at  my  exile  from  a  dy- 
ing father's  house.  Even  you,  learning  it  from  the  sneer- 
ing lips  of  Society,  must  taunt  me  ! — I !  who,  in  all  my 
loss  of  a  princely  heritage,  and  reduction  to  the  dust, 
would  esteem  it  a  stain  upon  my  manhood  to  ask  even  a 
good  word,  much  less  a  dollar — except  for  carrying  a 
trunk  upon  my  dray — from  the  best  of  you  !  Lardner, 
I'll  hear  no  more  from  you." 

"  'Nor  I  from  you !"  retorted  that  gentleman,  also 
leaving  his  chair.  "  A  lady  may  be  able  to  get  some- 
thing sane  out  of  you,  if  I  can't ;  and  I'll  resign  you  for 
a  while  to  your  cousin." 

"Hat?"  burst  from  Aster,  with  another  j amp  ;  pro- 
ducing another  jump,  again,  from  the  startled  Uncle  on 
his  way  to  the  folding  doors. 

"  Lucy,  my  dear,"  called  Mr.  Lardner,  opening  the 
doors  very  impatiently  ;  "  here  comes  your  cousin  John, 
who  insists  upon  being  nothing  but  a  drayman  with  me. 


RUNG   AND   RANK.  55 

See  if  you  can't  make  him  more  gracious  while  I  am  at 
the  Club." 

"  O,  Pa  !"  sounded  a  rich,  girlish  voice. 

"  Now,  John,  step  in  there,  and  Good-evening.  Your 
pride  with  us  is  ridiculous.  If  you  leave  before  my  re- 
turn, of  course  you'll  be  here  often  again.  Good-even- 
ing." And  he  was  out  of  the  room  before  another  word 
could  be  said. 

With  a  decidedly  curious  expression  upon  his  tragic 
countenance,  the  drayman  stood  like  a  statue  on  the 
same  spot  for  a  moment ;  then  ground  his  big  cane  into 
the  velvet  carpet,  threw  back  his  head,  and  sauntered 
heavily  past  the  folding  doors  with  a  freedom  but  slightly 
removed  from  ruffianism. 

"  Cousin  Jack,  is  it  you  ?" 

"  Perhaps." 

She  was  more  than  lovely  in  that  silky  blue  dress  ;  she 
was  more  than  queenly  in  her  stature  and  step,  as  she 
advanced  from  the  piano  to  meet  him  with  extended 
hand ;  she  was  more  than  a  picture  with  her  glorious 
blonde  locks  gathered  in  ripple,  waterfall,  wave,  and 
curly  single  falling  stream,  and  her  white  throat  cut  with 
a  locketed  thin  strip  of  black  velvet,  tying  behind ;  she 
was  unexceptionally  a  Beautiful  woman  in  her  delicate 
and  classic  brow,  nose,  and  mouth,  and  soft  blue  eyes. 

Aster  pulled  his  moustache  as  he  resigned  her  hand, 
and  seemed  suddenly  to  feel  more  at  home.  Not  troub- 
ling himself,  however,  to  favor  any  particular  school  of 
etiquette,  he  omitted  handing  Miss  Lardner  to  a  chair, 
and,  while  she  was  seeking  one  for  herself,  laid  his  walk- 
ing-rung, or  cane,  heavily  upon  the  piano,  and  tested  a 
few  notes  of  that  instrument  with  a  dingy  forefinger. 

"  You  are  a  great  stranger,  Mr.  Aster,"  remarked  the 


56  HUNG    AND   RANK. 

lady,  all  her  cousinly  feeling  abruptly  chilled  by  his  air 
of  reserve  and  musical  nicety. 

"  Wait  a  minute,"  said  Aster,  "  until  I  get  this  tune." 

Indignation  sparkled  in  the  eyes  and  flushed  the  brow 
of  Lucy,  and  she  arose. 

"  I  will  retire,  sir,  until  you  are  at  leisure." 

"  Lucy,"  said  the  drayman,  sternly,  but  still  bending 
over  the  key-board,  "  you  will  remain  here  until  Lardner 
returns." 

"  My  father,  sir,  is  Mr.  Lardner." 

u  I  dare  say  he  thinks  so  to  himself. — There,  that  was 
a  tune." 

"  I — I — don't  know  what  to  make  of  you  !  You  are 
insulting,  cousin  John  !"  cried  the  affrighted  girl,  taking 
a  step  forward,  clasping  both  hands  to  her  face,  and  burst- 
ing into  tears. 

Not  wishing  to  play  any  more,  Mr.  Aster  strode  from 
the  piano  to  where  she  stood,  and,  by  a  powerful  but  not 
rude  effort,  removed  her  hands  from  her  face ;  drying 
the  teare  from  the  latter,  before  she  had  time  to  resist, 
with  a  large  red  silk  handkerchief,  smelling  faintly  of 
horse. 

a  Cousin  Lucy,"  he  said,  in  deep,  husky  tones,  holding 
both  her  hands,  and  magnetizing  her  with  his  grand  eyes, 
— "  Cousin  Lucy,  you  great  ladies  of  rank  hold  the  poor 
drayman  cheaply  enough,  at  best,  and  would  make  a 
merit  of  allowing  him  to  stand  in  your  presence  at  all. 
Now,  if  I  am  a  drayman,  I  am  also  a  Man  ;  and  too 
much  a  man  to  be  either  offended  or  discommoded  by 
what  a  vain,  light-headed  slip  of  a  girl  can  say,  or  do. 
It  is  my  will  that  you  should  take  your  seat  again  ;  as  I 
design  remaining  here  about  ten  minutes,  and  expect  you 
to  make  me  more  gracious,  as  Lardner  said." 


HUNG    AND   BANK.  57 

The  powerful  psychological  influence  of  his  eyes,  in- 
tensified by  the  bone  eye-glasses,  crushed  down  her  spirit 
of  girlish  resentment  and  rebellion,  like  grass  beneath  a 
heel,  and  she  could  only  give  him  one  look  of  entreaty, 
and  then  bow  her  head. 

Leading  her  back  to  her  chair,  by  one  hand,  as  by  a 
bridle ;  and,  after  she  was  seated,  making  a  few  abstracted 
efforts  to  kiss  her,  in  all  of  which  her  back-hair  alone 
presented  itself  to  his  lips  at  every  turn,  he  finally  took 
such  an  attitude  upon  a  chair  at  hand  as  suggested  his 
greater  familiarity  with  a  saddle. 

Tilting  toward  her,  then,  the  back  of  this  chair  on 
which  he  sat  a-horseback,  and  folding  his  arms  upon  the 
top  thereof,  he  spoke  again  : 

"  You  recognize  me  as  your  Cousin  Jack  ?" 

"  Yes,"  she  answered,  meekly,  still  under  the  spell  of 
his  eyes  and  fluttering.  "  Your  manner  is  somewhat 
changed,  and  your  complexion  more  affected  by  the  sun ; 
but  I  knew  you  at  once  this  afternoon.  Now  that  you 
are  in  different  dress  you  look  yet  more  natural.  That 
very  cloak  you  have  on  now,  I  remember  as  being  the 
one  which  had  been  purchased,  you  told  me,  when  you 
and  your  brother  first  left  home  and  talked  of  going  to 
the  West." — Then,  as  a  kind  of  revenge  for  the  subjection 
in  which  his  glance  still  held  her. — "  Pa  helped  you  to 
pay  the  bill  for  it  at  last." 

«  Hat  ?" 

He  had  prefaced  this  exclamation  with  slowly  opening 
mouth  and  a  gradual  rising  from  his  saddle-seat ;  yet 
jumped,  himself,  with  the  amazing  final  suddenness  of 
it,  and  startled  her  sensitive  heart  into  her  mouth. 

"  Oh !"   she  murmured,  looking  affrightedly  at  him, 
and    pressing   a  hand    against    her    throbbing   bosom. 
3* 


58  EUNG   AND  EANK. 

"  Forgive  me,  Cousin  John,  for  reminding  you  of  that 
time  of  trouble." 

Aster  pulled  his  moustache,  and  settled  into  his  wonted 
demeanor  again,  as  though  his  exclamation  had  been  in- 
voluntary. 

"  Lucy,  why  do  you  think  that  such  reminders  wound 
me  ?"  he  asked,  tilting  over  still  farther,  and  scraping 
his  heels  on  the  carpet. 

'•  Because ;"  and  she  made  a  vain  effort  to  get  away 
from  his  searching  eyes,  "  you  have  an  indomitable  pride, 
I  know,  which  can  not  bear  the  recollection  of  one  mo- 
ment's obligation  to  another  man." 

"  Yes,  I  am  proud." 

Then  she  changed  the  subject.  "  How  long  have  you 
been  in  New  York,  Cousin  John,  since  the  war  ?" 

"  About  a  year."  With  a  bewildered  glare  of  the  eye- 
glasses. 

"  And  have  not  been  to  see  us  in  all  that  time,  until 
now  %  Very  well,  Cousin  John  !  But  we  have  not  for- 
gotten you  in  that  way.  You  know,  I  suppose,  that  your 
Father  declines  steadily,  and  that  he  is  in  New  York,  now, 
for  medical  treatment,  with  your  Step-mother." 

"  My  curses  on  her !"  roared  Aster,  suddenly  violent 
and  speaking  through  his  teeth.  "Heaven  grant  that 
I  may  not  murder  that  Woman — Mur-rder  her  !" 

"  Oh,  no.     Not  that." 

"  But  I  say  Yes  !"  raved  the  drayman.  "  Don't  con- 
tradict me.  No  woman  shall  do  that  with  impunity. 
The  hate  of  that  Stepmother  has  driven  me  forth  into 
the  pitiless  world,  to  cart  trunks,  boxes,  and  barrels  of 
flour,  and  to  help  '  move  '  whole  families  of  my  inferiors 
on  the  First  of  May.  She  is  plotting  to  make  my  father 
rob  me,  in  his  death,  of  my  birthright,  to  give  it  to  her 


RUNG   AND   RANK.  59 

reptile  of  a  grown  son  and  animalcule  of  a  baby.  But 
I'll  foil  her  yet,  by  Heaven  !  if  only  over  the  deathbed 
of  the  poor  old  man  she  has  made  her  slave.  Let  her 
beware  of  me  !    Let  all  her  false  sex  bewar-r-re  of  me  !" 

He  was  superb,  leonine,  ocean-like,  in  his  wrath,  and 
the  girl  feared  and  admired  him. 

"  Be  patient,"  she  soothingly  said.  "  Nature  and 
Right  are  on  your  side ;  and  Pa  believes,  and  I  believe, 
that  Mrs.  Aster  will  not  succeed  finally  in  her  wicked- 
ness. Pa,  himself,  may  yet  insist  upon  a  reconciliation 
with  your  Father,  his  half  brother,  and  speak  to  him  for 
you.     Be  patient,  Cousin  John,  and  trust  in  Providence." 

"  I  can't !"  muttered  Aster,  doggedly. 

"  Not  trust  in  Providence  ?" 

"  No.     I'm  a  Ritualist." 

"  Now,  John  Aster,"  remonstrated  Miss  Lardner,  not 
so  much  in  terror  of  his  commanding  eyes  at  this  point, 
"  I  know  that  a  pure  and  lofty  religious  principle  is  yours 
at  heart,  and  that  you  are  more  childlike  under  its  instil- 
lation of  orthodox  faith  than  many  a  child.  Be  firm  in 
that.  Have  ample  faith,  and  you  will  yet  gain  your  Fa- 
ther's parting  blessing,  secure  your  birthright,  and  be 
able  to  marry  the  true-hearted  girl  to  whom  your  honor 
is  pledged." 

"  Hay  ?" 

He  had  risen  so  high  up  the  back  of  his  tilted  chair 
during  the  beautiful  womanly  exhortation,  and  jumped 
so  electrically  with  his  irrepressible  exclamation  at  its 
close,  that  he  went  over,  chair  and  all,  to  the  floor,  with 
a  tremendous  crash,  shaking  the  whole  house  and  scaring 
Miss  Lardner  to  the  other  side  of  the  parlor. 

"  Oh  !"  she  panted,  pale  as  death.  "  D-d-did  you  hit 
your  head  ?" 


60  RUNG    AND   RANK. 

Frowning  darkly,  and  rubbing  his  high  forehead,  the 
drayman  slowly  struggled  up  under  his  Spanish  cloak,  and 
again  stood  erect.  As  he  entered  the  parlor  he  had  plac- 
ed his  sombrero  upon  the  head  of  a  marble  figure  of 
Psyche,  (to  which  it  gave  considerable  character,)  near 
the  folding  doors,  and  thither  he  now  strode  for  it ;  mere- 
ly pausing  on  his  way  to  take  his  walking-rung  from  the 
top  of  the  piano. 

"  Our  conversation,  madame,"  said  he,  with  suppressed 
fierceness,  "  has  reached  a  point  beyond  which  it  can  not 
go  without  driving  me  mad.  Forgive  me.  My  mind 
spins,  and  I  am  filled  with  hatred  of  all  woman-kind.  I 
must  leave  you  now,  begging  that  you  will  give  my  adieu 
to  Lardner." 

"  I  have  not  oifended  you  ?" 

il'No,  girl." 

"  Won't  you  come  to  a  dinner-party  which  Pa  gives 
next  Wednesday  week?"  She  asked  it  apologetically, 
almost. 

They  stood  together  now  near  the  street-door  in  the 
hall,  and  Aster's  grave  attempt  to  give  her  a  chaste  salute, 
in  reply,  was  only  prevented  by  the  toppling  down  of  his 
sombrero  over  his  chin  at  the  critical  moment.  The  hat 
hurt  her  nose ;  but  she  playfully  drew  back  and  opened 
the  door. 

"At  any  rate,  we  shall  see  you  often,  now?" 

"Perhaps.     Good-night,  Lucy." 

"  Good-night. — And,  oh !  Cousin  John  !  If  you  should 
see  her  first,  give  my  love  to  Dollie." 

"Hay?" 

It  burst  from  him  with  such  a  spasmodic  start,  on  the 
third  step  of  the  stoop,  that  he  came  near  pitching  down 
the  remainder  of  the  distance  ;  but,  as  Miss  Lardner  had 


THE   NEW    FIEM   OF   DAPPLE   &   CO.  Gl 

closed  the  door  on  the  very  instant  of  her  farewell  charge, 
the  lonely  street,  only,  heard  the  cry. 

So,  the  Rembrandt  figure  of  a  drayman  hied  him  home- 
ward, to  commune  with  the  silent  stars  and  water  his  buck- 
skin horse  ;  and  the  maiden  went  back  to  await  her  papa, 
with  dreamy  trills  upon  the  piano  and  dreamier  thoughts 
of  the  great,  manly  heart  which  had  aived  and  command- 
ed her  like  a  child. 

Woman's  nature,  in  its  exquisite  and  flower-like  ten- 
dency to  look  ever  Upward,  craves  a  Master  in  man ;  and 
knows  its  most  profound  and  beautiful  fidelity  to  him, 
in  every  relation,  as  he  makes  the  very  creak  of  his 
boots  a  wholesome  snub. 


VII. 

THE   NEW   FIRM   OF   DAPPLE    &   CO. 

TOU  may  imagine  Miss  Dapple's  surprise  at  being 
waylaid  by  her  father,  in  the  narrow  hall  of  their 
house  on  her  return  home  that  evening  from  Sophia 
Skeggs's,  and  very  nervously  informed  that  an  old  friend 
of  his  had  arrived  during  her  absence  and  would  stay  all 
night ;  but  your  imagination  must  be  equal  to  a  whole  li- 
brary of  essays  on  the  brotherly  love  of  Englishmen  for 
Yankees,  if  it  can  do  justice  to  the  same  young  lady's 
breathless  amazement,  when,  at  next  morning's  breakfast 
table,  that  old  friend  was  stammeringly  introduced  to  her 
as  the  Toyman's  future  partner ! 


02  THE    NEW    FIRM    OF   DAPPLE   &   CO. 

"  Long,  straight  black  hair,  small  eyes,  and  a  red  nose." 
Him  exactly.  The  man  her  father  had  been  so  afraid  of 
in  the  street  that  day  ;  and  had  described  to  her,  with  so 
many  signs  of  vague  terror,  for  the  purpose  of  taxing 
her  memory  in  his  identification.  This  flashed  through 
her  mind  much  sooner  than  it  would  have  done  through 
a  man's,  and  the  intuitive  creature  at  once  divined  a  pow- 
erful enemy.     Perhaps  a  creditor. 

And  to  have  him  always  in  the  house,  too ;  and  her 
father  (grown  older,  and  more  haggard  and  nervous,  in  a 
single  night,)  seeming  equally  dispirited  in  his  company 
and  unwilling  to  give  her  a  moment's  time  for  question- 
ing by  himself !  Such  simultaneous  invitation  and  defeat 
of  curiosity  were  almost  too  much  for  her  woman-nature, 
and  made  Dollie  decidedly  blue  for  the  first  time  in  her 
green  young  life. 

It  must  be  said  for  the  ex-Odontolator,  however,  that, 
questionable  as  had  been  his  method  of  gaining  a  share  in 
the  business  ;  much  as  it  partook  of  the  morality  of  an 
Erie  director:  he  certainly  laid  himself  out  to  make  mat- 
ters as  pleasant  as  possible,  and  quickly  became  an  inval- 
uable help  to  the  concern.  Geoffrey  Dapple,  like  every 
inventor  of  genius,  was  but  a  wretched  tradesman ;  and 
his  daughter,  of  course,  was  just  that  delightful  failure  in 
the  same  line  wdiich  Eve  proved  to  be  when  she  sold  out 
all  her  share  in  the  first  Central  Park  for  a  diabolical  pip- 
pin. But  Canary  was  immediate  and  immense.  lie 
threw  himself  into  things,  like  a  fresh  head  of  steam  into 
a  languid  engine ;  commencing  by  kicking  the  morning- 
and-evening  Goggle  for  utterly  refusing  at  first  to  recog- 
nize him  as  an  authority  in  the  establishment,  (or  as  any 
thing  else,  save  a  putter  on  of  "frills,")  and  concluding 
by  bursting  into  poetical  legends  on  show-cards  all  over 


TIIE    NEW    FIRM    OF    DAPPLE   &   CO.  03 

the  toy-store,  and  inventing  a  striking  new  improvement 
in  barkinoj-dosra. 

' '  As  eggs  are  eggs,  so  boys  must  still  be  boys, 
Their  future  foibles  symbol'd  in  their  Toys. 
This  one  to  horses,  this  to  drums  inclines ; 
A  third,  with  spade  and  hoe  the  carpet  mines ; 
A  fourth  with  '  blocks '  his  future  castle  builds ; 
A  fifth  saws  chairs  in  feign'd  mechanic-guilds ; 
While  for  the  sixth  his  '  Savings  Bank '  contains 
The  Politician's,  or  the  Merchant's  gains." 

and — 

"The  little  maid  with  Doll  her  hands  between, 
Is  Woman  down  a  long  perspective  seen," 

were  among  the  practicable  poetic  gems  contributed  to 
the  stock  by  this  sudden  toy-Tapper,  and  their  proverbially 
philosophical  spirit  told  magnetically  on  the  souls  of  par- 
ents and  guardians.  Even  Mr.  Groggle,  after  laboriously 
spelling  one  of  them  out,  was  heard  to  observe  in  an  un- 
known tongue,  but  with  commendatory  emphasis,  that  it 
was  "  gay  old  lallygag ;"  and,  for  ever  after,  held  the 
composer  in  high  respect  as  an  "  ink-slinger." 

That  Canary  had  ever  practiced  in  any  mechanical 
trade,  or,  indeed,  done  respectably  in  anything,  before, 
was  not  likely  ;  yet,  from  the  first  morning,  his  labors  in 
the  toy  vineyard  were  a  success !  Possibly  he,  like  many 
another  man  of  more  vanity  than  logic,  had  wasted  many 
a  year  in  waiting  for  the  Great  things  which  he  believed 
himself  exclusively  fitted  to  undertake,  while  indifferent- 
ly, or  contemptuously,  passing-by  whole  swarms  of  Little 
things,  from  every  other  one  of  which  he  might  have  made 
fame  and   fortune.     At   any   rate,   he    throve    magical- 


64  THE   NEW   FIEM   OF   DAPPLE    &    CO. 

ly  as  a  toy-merchant ;  and  was  hardly  less  magical 
in  his  immediate  change  of  manner  toward  Geoifrey 
Dapple. 

But  the  latter  would  allow  no  geniality,  or  practical  ben- 
efit, to  change* his  own  apparent  sentiment  regarding  the 
man  who  had  terrorized  a  partnership  from  him.  He  be- 
came silent,  soulless,  and  miserably  older :  his  furtive 
glances  under  his  shaggy  brows  at  the  new  partner  were 
alternately  cringing  and  revengeful ;  he  was  ever  slyly 
vigilant,  too,  that  Dollie  should  have  no  opportunity  to 
find  either  Canary  or  himself  alone  :  and  poor  Dollie 
scarcely  knew  whether  to  cry  the  more  in  her  chamber  at 
night  from  pique  or  sorrow. 

The  properly  trained  female  mind  is  very  apt  to  seek 
balm  for  early  sorrows  in  evening  church-going  ;  especial- 
ly on  very  dark  nights  and  when  the  church  is  fully  half 
a  mile  from  home  ;  so,  the  worried  and  confounded  Miss 
Dapple  presently  discovered  a  Methodist  meeting-house 
some  twenty  blocks  away,  where  she  could  be  miserably 
good  two  evenings  in  the  week ;  and  thither  she  began 
going  in  edifying  spiritual  abasement  so  soon  as  the  great 
conundrum  of  the  home-situation  became  too  much  to  bear 
without  piety. 

On  one  of  these  evenings,  as  she  came  out  of  the 
Church  into  an  unexpected  rain,  the  mysterious  new 
member  of  the  firm  of  Dapple  &  Co.,  met  her  on  the 
steps  of  the  sacred  edifice  with  an  extended  umbrella, 
and  had  her  comfortably  tucked  under  his  arm  before 
she  could  utter  a  word  of  protest. 

"  Now,  Miss  Dollie,"  said  he,  when  they  had  turned 
the  first  corner,  "please  walk  slowly,  and  I'll  tell  you 
why  I've  come  to-night  to  beau  you  home.  You  didn't 
expect  me?" 


THE   NEW    FIRM    OF   DAPPLE    &    CO.  65 

" No,  sir,"  said  Dollie,  very  near  crying  between  fear 
and  vexation,  u  I  certainly  did  not !" 

"  And  can't  guess  what  brought  me  ?" 

"No,  sir.     I  don't  think  Father  sent  you  ?" 

"Not  he,"  said  Dr.  Canary,  with  vivacity.  "He  fell 
asleep  by  the  stove,  or  I  should  not  have  dared.  He's 
like  a  jailor  over  me." 

"  O,  Dr.  Canary,"  exclaimed  Dollie,  with  sudden  im- 
petuosity, "  what  is  there  between  you  and  my  Father  ? 
I'm  sure  there  must  be  something  dreadful !  Does  he 
owe  you  money  ?" 

"  Now  don't  be  excited,  my  good  little  girl,"  remon- 
strated Canary,  holding  gently  back.  "  I  want  to  be  a 
good  friend  to  your  father,  (and  to  you,  too,  if  you'll 
permit),  but  you  must  see  that  he  treats  me  offishly. 
Hav'n't  you  the  slightest  idea  why  ?" 

"  He  never  tells  me  anything  now."     With  a  sigh. 

"  Don't  I  always  treat  both  of  you  well  ?  And  hav'n't 
I  more  than  doubled  the  business  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir." 

"  Then  why  do  you  always  treat  me  as  though  you 
disliked  the  very  air  I  breathe  ?" 

"  O,  Dr.  Canary,"  said  Dollie  again,  in  a  low,  tremu- 
lous tone,  "  because — because — I  can't  help  thinking 
that  you  must  have  done  something  cruel  to  Father,  to 
get  into  his  business,  and  change  him  so." 

Dr.  Canary  walked  a  few  steps  in  silence,  and  then 
asked,  with  more  apparent  thonghtfulness  : 

"  Did  it  never  strike  yon,  Miss  Dollie,  that  your  father 
may  have  done  something  to  give  an  unscrupulous  man 
an  iron  hold  upon  him  ?" 

Dollie  shrank  from  him  and  half  released  her  arm 
from  his. 


GO  THE   XEW    FIUM    OF   DAPPLE    &    CO. 

"  What  can  you  mean,  sir  ?  My  Father  has  been  un- 
fortunate ;  but  he  never  did  wrong." 

"  At  any  rate,  Miss  Dollie,  he's  fortunate  in  having 
you  for  a  daughter,  and  does  right  if  he  appreciates  yon. 
Now  do  try  and  answer  me  like  a  friend,  to-night,  aud 
you'll  not  repent  it.  "Was  there  nothing  in  your  Father's 
conduct,  before  I  came,  to  puzzle  you  about  him,  some- 
times ?  He's  got  the  look  of  a  man  who  has  had  some- 
thing heavy  on  his  mind  for  longer  than  you've  known 
me." 

"  That's  because  he  has  never  stopped  grieving  for  my 
Stepmother,"  said  Dollie,  lulled  into  momentary  confi- 
dence ;  "  and  because  he  lost  the  clock-work  of  a  Doll 
he'd  almost  got  to  Walking,  on  the  day  she  was  taken  to 
the  hospital  from  falling  off  the  store-ladder  by  the 
window  and  fracturing  her  skull.  He  had  brain-fever 
for  weeks  after  it,  and  has  never  been  able  to  recall  his 
invention  since — do  all  he  can.  He  expected  to  get  rich 
by  that  Walking  Doll ;  and  you  see  he  is  forever  trying 
to  make  it  work,  even  now,  at  Lis  bench." 

"Ah  I"  muttered  Canary,  lowering  the  umbrella  more 
closely  over  them.  "He  grieves  for  your  Stepmother 
and  for  his  lost  invention.— What  do  you  suppose  is  his  rea- 
son for  being  so  nervous  about  that  curiously  bundled-up 
window-curtain  ?" 

He  must  have  thrown  out  this  sudden  question  as  a 
surprise  ;  and  it  did  surprise — even  agitate — the  girl  at 
his  side  to  an  extent  scarcely  warranted  by  any  reasonable 
suggestion  of  the  query. 

"  That  curtain  !"  ejaculated  she,  involuntarily  grasping 
his  arm  with  both  her  little  hands,  and  bringing  him  to 
a  dead-halt  on  the  moment.  "  What  do  you  know,  sir,  of 
it  ?     What  business  is  it  of  yours  ?" 


THE    NEW    FIEM    OF    DAPPEE    ft    CO.  07 

"I  know  nothing  more  than  I  said,"  he  returned,  ap- 
parently somewhat  taken  aback  himself.  "I  merely 
referred  to  your  fathers  excitement  when  I  made  my 
first  and  last  comment  upon  the  eccentric  taste  of  a 
curtain  arranged  like  that,  and  to  my  having  caught 
sight  of  him  this  morning,  when  he  thought  me  busy, 
studying,  and  talking  to,  the  shadow  of  the  curtain  on 
the  wall.     Shall  we  move  on  again  ?" 

Dollie  drew  a  long  breath,  as  they  went,  and  seemed 
relieved;  and  also  ashamed. 

"Excuse  me,  Dr.  Canary,  for  acting  so  foolishly.  My 
Stepmother  was  fixing-up  the  curtain,  I  believe,  when 
she  fell  from  the  ladder,  and  poor  Father  has  never  al- 
lowed it  to  be  touched  since.  He  did  love  her  so ! — I 
think,"  she  added,  very  quickly,  as  upon  an  afterthought, 
"I  could  kill  any  one,  Myself,  for  touching  it  I" 

"  I  understand,  now.  One  of  love's  sorrowing  super- 
stitions. We  are  almost  at  home,  now,  Miss  Dollie,  and 
I  must  talk  fast.  Try  to  think  well  of  me.  As  an  elder 
friend,  I  mean.  I'll  neither  explain  nor  excuse  the  means 
I  took  to  become  your  father's  partner  so  suddenly ;  but,  if 
you'll  take  the  word  of  a  broken  man  who  has  been  his 
own  worst  enemy,  and  is  not  actually  capable  of  much 
prolonged  enmity  against  anybody  else, — I  am  his  friend 
now,  and  yours.  Will  you  try  to  think  well  of  me  until 
you  see  me  do  something  to  make  you  think  otherwise  J" 

There  were  an  earnestness  and  a  pathos  in  his  voice 
which  touched  the  sensitive  heart  of  the  girl  kindly. 

"  I  will  try.  Dr.  Canary."    And  they  were  at  the  door. 

Dollie's  night-key  admitted  them  to  the  hall,  which 
they  had  scarcely  entered  when  the  old  Toyman  emerged 
therein  from  the  room  back  of  the  store,  and  stood  re- 
garding them  like  some  murdered  man's  ghost. 


68  dollie's  confession. 

"  Father,''  said  Dollie,  "  Dr.  Canary  came  to  church, 
for  me  with  an  umbrella." 

As  for  the  bearer  of  the  umbrella,  he  went  straight  on 
up  the  stairs  to  his  own  room,  in  a  matter-of-course  way. 

"Father,  are  you  ill?"  asked  Dollie,  seeing  him  still 
motionless  there  and  awfully  eyeing  her. 

For  reply  he  suddenly -seized  her  by  the  dress,  like  a 
maniac,  and  dragged  her  into  the  room. 


VIII- 


dollie's  confession. 


44 


E 


^VERY  word  he  has  spoken  to  you!"  hissed 
Geoffrey  Dapple,  clutching  his  daughter's 
tender  shoulders  with  pitiless  fury,  and  holding  her 
scared  white  face  close  to  his.  "  Tell  me  every  syllable 
he  has  uttered  to-night,  you  false-hearted  girl,  or  I'll 
choke  it  from  you  !" 

"Father!"  ' 

His  withered,  parched  lips  trembled  miserably  as  he 
glared  into  her  dilated,  frightened,  horror-lightened  eyes, 
and  he  breathed  through  his  nostrils  as  though  each 
breath  might  end  in  a  gush  of  blood. 

"  Tell  me,  I  say,  every  word  that  man  has  spoken  to 
you !"  he  panted  again.  "  No  lies  ;  no  equivocations ; 
or  I'll  put  you  out  of  his  reach  forever  !  Quick  !  When 
did  this  intimacy  begin  ?  Speak  your  shame,  and  then 
be  cast  into  the  street !" 

" Father!"  die- cried   again   in    a  wail,   a  prayer,  of 


dollie's  confession.  69 

agony ;  then  sank  upon  her  knees  under  his  furious  grasp, 
and  looked  up  with  that  face  of  blank,  introspective  hor- 
ror, which,  as  that  of  a  sinless  Wife  wrongly  accused — 
aye,  and  contaminated ! — by  the  foul  madness  of  Jea- 
lousy, has,  more  than  once,  spoken  an  outraged  Woman- 
hoods' first  unholy  thought  toward  the  one  justifying  and 
evil  Revenge. 

Even  in  his  dernentedness,  the  unhappy  father  read  in 
it  something  to  fear  more  than  the  spectre  raised  in  his 
own  wrath ;  and  drew  his  hands  slowly  from  her  shoul- 
ders, and  pressed  them  convulsively  against  his  temples, 
and  stared  at  her  fearfully. 

"  My  Child  !  my  Child  !  what  have  I  said  ?" 

"  O,  Father !  Father !" 

"Dollie?     Little  Dollie?" — His  hand  was  trembling 

CD 

on  her  hair,  now,  and  he  whimpered  like  a  child — 
"Where  are  we?  Why  are  you  not  in  bed;  and  I — " 
With  the  other  hand  groping  over  his  brow,  in  a  lost 
way,  he  sank  brokenly  down  to  his  knees  beside  her,  and, 
catching  her  softer  glance  again, — "You  have  been — 
with  him  !    With  hem  1" 

Drawing  back  from  her,  his  raised  hands  half  clenched, 
his  every  feature  drawn  and  quivering,  and  his  eyes 
standing  out  in  fascinated  terror,  he  tottered,  swayed, 
and  fell  on  his  side  upon  the  floor  with  a  moaning 
cry. 

In  a  moment  all  but  his  long-endured  suffering  was 
forgotten,  and  Dollie  held  his  head  upon  her  bosom  and 
wept  over  him. 

"  My  own  dear,  darling  Father,"  she  sobbed,  "  you've 
said  no  harm ;  and  I've  been  an  undutiful,  ungrateful 
girl,  not  to  tell  you  what  you  asked  the  moment  you  first 
spoke.     I  never  spoke  to  »Dr.  Canary,  alone,  (How  could 


70  dollie's  confession. 

you !)■  before  to-night ;  and  to-night  he  has  spoken  only 
of  you." 

"Of  me?"  moaned  the  Toyman,  pitifully.  "Ah, 
Yes,— of  Me." 

"And  only  with  kind  solicitude  of  you,  Father.  I 
was  angry  when  I  saw  him  at  the  church-door,  I  never 
liked  him,  because  his  being  here  seemed  to  make  you 
unhappy.  For  a  minute,  I  thought  you  might  have 
asked  him  to  come  after  me  with  the  umbrella,  and 
was  provoked  at  you,  dear,  for  it.  I  never  liked  him, 
Father,  until  he  told  me  that  he  had  come  only  for  the 
chance  to  let  me  know  that  he  wanted  to  be  a  good  friend 
to  both  of  us,  and  wished  me  to  think  well " 


"  You  do  like  him  then  V1  interrupted  the  old  man, 
with  agonized  shrillness,  grasping  her  wrist. 

"  Only  a  little,  you  know,  Father.  I  mean,  I  think 
better  of  him  than  I  did  before  to-night.  He  says  as 
much,  himself,  as  that  he  was  hard  with  you,  perhaps, 
in  getting  into  our  business ;  but  now  that  he  is  in,  and 
is  helping  us  so  much,  he  wants  us  to  look  on  him  as  a 
friend." 

u  I  see,  I  see,"  muttered  Geoffrey  Dapple.  "  Oily 
words,  oily  words.  So  he'll  work  and  worm  himself 
into,  and  around,  and  over,  and  under,  all  that's  mine ; 
and  then  rise  up  and  strike. The  Blow.  Oh,  if  we  could 
both  die  here  and  now — here  and  now  !" 

"  Father,"  whispered  Dollie,  shuddering  at  his  words, 
"  what  can  there  be  between  you  and  this  man  to 
make  you  fear  him  so  ?  Why  must  I  see  you  act  as 
you  do  everyday,  and  talk  as  you  do  now,  and  not  be 
told  Why  ?  He  is  the  man  you  saw  on  the  wagon  in 
the  Square,  and  you  told  me  that  you  did  not  know 
him,  and  yet  were  Afraid  of  him !     He  came  here  that 


DOLLIE  S    CONFESSION.  71 

very  night,  and  has  been  here  ever  since.  O,  do  con- 
fide in  me,  and  tell  me  what  you " 

"  Hush  !"  ejaculated  the  wretched  father,  clasping  her 
spasmodically  in  his  arms.  "  Speak  lower ;  lower.  If 
he  heard — if  he  heard — he  might  come  clown  !" 

u  I  wish  he  would  come  !"  cried  the  girl,  turning  pas- 
sionate. "  I'd  tell  him  how  I  Hate  him  for  making  a  cow- 
ard of  my  Father  !  Think  well  of  him  ?  If  I  were  a  man, 
and  he  tried  to  make  me  afraid,  I'd  kill  him,  if  I  had 
to  do  it  with  that  clock-work  of  the  Walking  Doll,  over 
there  on  the  bench  !" 

That  was  a  wild  speech  for  a  daughter  in  her  filial 
anger ;  but  what  was  there  in  it  to  make  the  old  Toyman 
start  away  from  her  to  his  knees,  with  livid  face  and 
hands  beating  the  air — as  he  did  % 

"  He  has  Told  you  I"  he  almost  shrieked. 

Dollie  did  not  seek  to  win  him  to  her  again  this  time. 
A  strange  shadow  seemed  to  creep  over  her  wistful  coun- 
tenance as  she  looked  at  him,  and  she  drew  off  her  bon- 
net and  cast  it  upon  a  chair  before  replying. 

"  He  has  told  me  nothing,  except  what  I  have  repeated 
to  you.  If  he  had  told  me  anything  against  you,  Father, 
I  should  not  have  believed  it.  O,  if  I  had  only  refused 
to  hear  a  word  from  him !  But  he  shall  never  speak  to 
me  again.'' 

"Never  speak — " 

"  Never,  Father  !  What  a  woman  can  do  to  make  him 
uncomfortable  and  ashamed  here,  shall  be  done.  I'll  not 
even  look  at  him  at  the  table ;  I'll  answer  none  of  his 
questions  in  the  store,  before  customers ;  I'll  hate  him 
so — -" 

"  No,  no,  no !"  whimpered  the  Toyman,  stretching  out  his 
shaking  hands  to  stop  her :  "  you  must  not.     He'll  turn 


72  dollie's  confession. 

on  me  and  rain  me !  Spare  me,  Dollie  " — lie  was  fairly 
praying  on  his  knees  to  her — "  have  mercy  on  your  poor, 
old  broken-hearted  Father !" 

She  arose  almost  grimly  to  her  feet,  and  lifted  him, 
unresisting,  also,  and  led  him  to  a  chair,  and  stood  over 
him  as  on  the  night  of  the  two  watches. 

"  If  you  have  any  love  for  me  at  all,"  she  said,  with 
scarcely  a  trace  of  emotion  left  in  her  girlish  voice ;  "  if 
you  ever  loved  my  poor  dead  Mother,  I  ask  you,  Father, 
in  the  name  of  that  love,  to  answer  me  One  question.  I 
will  never  ask  more,  and  will  never  speak  of  this  one 
again.  I  promise  you  solemnly.  Are  you  in  the  power 
of  Dr.  Canary?" 

His  dishonored  head  sank  upon  his  breast  in  abject 
helplessness ;  in  a  despairing  motion  of  assent. 

Then  her  head  sank,  too,  though  he  did  not  see  it ; 
and  her  boson  heaved  with  the  dying  sigh  of  a  hope  lost 
forever. 

"  I  understand,  dear,  and  will  try  to  act  prudently. 
He  has  been  polite  to  me,  and  I  shall  do  nothing  to 
offend  him." 

"  He  must  have  all,"  groaned  Geoffrey  Dapple :  "  my 
home,  my  good  name  :  perhaps — O,  my  breaking  heart ! 
— perhaps  my  Child." 

In  the  unmanned  despair  of  the  concession  to  such  a 
possibility  as  that,  by  a  father's  lips,  there  was  greater, 
far  greater  invocation  to  a  daughter's  sense  of  dastardly 
wrong,  than  in  anything  those  lips  could  utter  in  the 
frenzy  of  mistaken  rage ;  yet  Dollie  heard  it  calmly,  and 
smoothed  his  poor,  heated  brow  with  steady  hand. 

"  God  will  take  care  of  us,"  she  said,  after  a  pause. 
u  I  can  trust  in  Him.  You  have  given  me  your  con- 
fidence, Father  ;  and  now,  before  I  kiss  you  Good-night 


bollie's  confession.  73 

I  want  to  confess  something  in  return. — Please  don't  try 
to  look  at"  me. — Yon  spoke  just  now  about  my  '  liking ' 
Dr.  Canary.  You  would  not  have  spoken  in  that  way 
of  it,  if  I  had  been  brave  enough  to  tell  you  this  before. 
Father,  I — I  love  already." 

*  Dollie  ;—  Dollie  ?" 

"  While  I  was  at  that  school,  near  Philadelphia,  there 
were  little  parties  given  for  us  scholars  once  a  fortnight, 
and  some  of  the  best  people  in  the  village  were  invited. 
With  one  family  there  used  to  come  a  young  man  who 
lived  in  Philadelphia,  but  was  staying  in  the  village  for 
a  Summer,  and  he — lie — got  acquainted  with  me.— Oh, 
Father,  wThat  is  the  use !  we  fell  in  love  with  each  other, 
although  I  wasn't  much  more  than  a  child.  I'd  have 
written  to  you  about  it,  dear,  or  told  you  when  I  came 
home  ;  but  he  was  in  some  trouble  at  home  witli  a  Step- 
mother, and  asked  me  to  keep  our  attachment  secret  for 
a  while.  When  I  came  home  you  were  very  sick,  you 
know,  so  I  couldn't  tell  it  then  ;  after  that  he  asked  me  in 
a  letter  to  wait  a  little  while  longer — he  feared  he  would 
have  to  leave  his  home  altogether,  because  of  his  Step- 
mother, and  earn  a  living  for  himself.  I  couldn't  make 
him  believe  that  you'd  think  none  the  less  of  him  for  that. 
He  said  he  knew  nothing  about  work  and  would  be  very 
poor  until  he  had  learned.  I  saw  him  here  in  New 
York  afterwards.  He  came  here,  once,  when  he  was 
sure  you  had  gone  out,  and  told  me  he  must  go  to  the 
war.  Father,  we  Engaged  ourselves  to  each  other  before 
he  went.  I've  not  heard  from  nor  seen  him  since,  and 
I  have  loved  him  dearly  all  this  while.  Will  you  forgive 
me  for  not  telling  you  until  now  ?" 

"  My  daughter,  can  you  forgive  me  tP. 


74  THE   CIRCUMAMBIENT   HEIR. 

"  Dear  Father !  Nothing  shall  come  before  my  love  for 
you,  or  near  to  it,  until  you  are  happy  again." 

"  And  nothing,"  cried  Geoffrey  Dapple,  rising  with  a 
sudden  fierce  manhood  to  his  feet,  and  clasping  her  pas- 
sionately to  his  heart, — "  nothing  shall  make  my  love  for 
you  too  poor  to  teach  the  father's  duty  to  the  man."  (If 
the  fire  in  his  eyes  was  not  good  to  see,  his  voice  and 
manner  were  soft  and  rehabilitating  in  paternal  affection.) 
"  Good-night,  my  dear. — God  bless  you." 


IX. 

THE   CIRCUMAMBIENT    HEIR. 

/^\  HEAT  souls  are  said  to  grow  nobler  by  misfortune ; 
vJT  even  as  the  unappreciated  and  auricular  George 
Francis  Train  of  the  brute  creation  is  believed  to  thrive 
upon  thistles.  Superior  minds  have  a  reputation  for 
deriving  humane  softness  from  the  shocks  of  adversity ; 
even  as  an  old  straw-bed  is  all  the  more  yielding  to  hu- 
manity's touch  for  being  well  shaken.  At  any  rate, 
Great  souls  and  Superior  minds  are  forever  being  unfor- 
tunate and  shocked  : — at  least  they  always  consider  them- 
selves great  and  superior : — and  the  wonder  is,  that,  with 
so  many  mills  all  the  time  working,  there  are  not  more 
nobility  and  softened  humanity  ground  into  the  world. 

Aster's  high-toned  soul  and  mind,  as  they  peered 
through  the  bone  eyeglasses  at  the  rather  limited  con- 
veniences of  their  owner's  room  in  Dame  Street,  may 
have  grown  nobler  and  softer  by  the  edifying  survey  ; 


THE    CIRCUMAMBIENT    HEIR.  75 

but,  if  so,  their  native  modesty  prevented  any  striking 
display  of  such  touching  improvements.  Their  intensi- 
fied glare  of  apparent  disgust  may  have  been  but  the  dis- 
torting effect  of  their  superhuman  effort  to  meekly  con- 
ceal their  actual  sublime  ennoblement  and  softening,  even 
as  a  hugely  tickled  man  will  (in  church,  or  at  a  funeral, 
say,)  sometimes  screw  his  face  into  an  appalling  frown  to 
keep  from  laughing ;  yet  that  small  whitewashed  back- 
room, plentifully  hung  in  second-mourning  with  cobwebs 
which  just  swept  the  nose,  and  depressingly  furnished 
with  pumpkin-colored  chairs  and  washstand,  a  tow  shake- 
down in  a  corner,  and  a  wTooden  bedstead  so  much  out  of 
mathematical  proportion  with  wear  that  it  seemed  in  the 
first  movement  towards  standing  on  its  hind-legs, — was  a 
home-viewT  not  calculated  to  exhilarate  one  who  had  a 
crest  and  monogram  on  his  card. 

Sitting  near  an  ingenious  fairy  stove,  which  required 
but  one  shovelful  of  coal  a  day  to  keep  the  room  cool,  and 
upon  which  stood  his  shaving-pot,  Aster  propped  his  chin 
with  his  closed  razor,  and  chewed  the  cud  of  sweet  and 
bitter  fancy  tobacco. 

"  From  sleeping  upon  that  fiendish  mockery  of  a  bed," 
brooded  he,  "  with  my  feet  higher  than  my  head,  and  the 
noise  of  the  old  quills  in  the  pillow  crackling  in  my  ear 
at  every  turn,  I  awaken  each  morning  from  broken  slum- 
bers with  a  rush  of  blood  to  the  brain,  and  am  more  and 
more  soured  against  the  whole  human  familv.  What 
have  Orlonzo  and  I  had  for  breakfast  this  morning? 
Hash — by  the  gods,  hash !  with  raisins  and  a  lock  of 
somebody's  hair  in  it."  He  ground  his  teeth.  "  I  have 
eaten  hash,  and  my  adopted  son  has  eaten  hash,  until 
there  are  more  small  buttons  and  heads  of  carpet-tacks 
inside  of  us  than  our  blood  requires.     The  butter  has  a 


76  THE   CIRCUMAMBIENT    HEIR. 

moral,  showing  how  sublime  a  thing  it  is  to  Suffer  and 
be  Strong  ;  but  there  is  a  weakness  in  the  tea  and  coffee 
which  neutralizes  the  admonition.  And  there  is  my 
opulent  Father,  living  in  Jenkins  Place,  and  enjoying 
more  doctors  and  broiled  game  than  would  kill  and  dress 
for  Greenwood  a  score  of  draymen ;  while  my  leopardy 
Stepmother  not  only  keeps  his  doors  closed  against  Me,  but 
also  schemes  to  get  the  property  willed  at  least  to  her 
baby  !"  He  made  motions  in  the  air  of  tearing  an  infant 
in  two,  and  throwing  one  half  into  the  coal-scuttle  and 
the  other  out  of  the  window.  "  As  I  told  Orlonzo  last 
niofht,  if  it  ever  comes  to  a  hand-to-hand  conflict  between 
that  baby  and  me,  one  of  us  must  Fall !  My  very  blood 
boils, — and  so  does  the  shaving-pot.  "Which  shows  that 
even  nature  sympathizes  with  my  wrongs.  My  hand  is 
too  much  excited  to  shave  just  yet  with  safety,  so  I'll 
have'a  few  words  with  Mrs.  Haggle  to  make  me  steady." 

Thus  concluding  his  soliloquy,  Aster  stalked  to  the 
door  in  considerable  agitation,  thrust  forth  his  curly 
black  head,  and  pronounced  the  name  of  his  landlady  in 
a  tone  to  make  that  woman's  flesh  creep.  • 

"  Yes,  Aster  !"  returned  a  sharp  voice,  so  close  behind 
his  protruding  head  that  the  embittered  man  immediately 
jerked  that  temple  of  intellect  back  against  the  door-edge 
with  a  bang.  "  If  you  was  to  go  on  the  roof  next  time, 
and  call  a  little  louder,  I  might  be  able  to  hear  you,  sir, 
by  putting  my  ear  to  the  chimbley." 

This  delicate  sarcasm  respecting  his  manner  of  roaring 
for  a  friend,  did  not  at  once  banish  from  the  drayman's 
face  that  expression  of  suffering  which  had  been  vividly 
painted  thereon  by  his  bump ;  nor  did  he  witness  the 
widow's  passage  into  the  room  without  a  certain  quick 
glare  of  suspicion. 


THE    CIRCUMAMBIENT    HEIR.  77 

"  Mrs.  Haggle,"  said  he,  in  deep  bass  reproach,  "  you 
must  have  been  at  the  keyhole,  madam." 

The  landlady,  who  was  a  woman 's-rights  matron  of 
impressive  figure,  forty  Summers,  and  brown  locks  cut 
short  in  her  neck,  took  a  chair  in  a  gentlemanly  manner 
and  tilted  back  in  it  an  inch  or  two. 

"  If  I  choose,"  said  she,  chewing  a  wisp  of  broom,  "  to 
look  through  my  own  keyhole,  to  see  if  a  lodgings  with 
breakfast  and  tea  is  using  my  coals  like  water,  I'm  not 
aware  that  even  Man's  legal  tyrannies  can  stop  me." 

"  But  suppose,"  exclaimed  Aster,  turning  pale, — "  sup- 
pose I'd  been  putting  on  my — hat." 

"Aster,"  returned  Mrs.  Haggle,  impatiently,  "I've 
been  married  myself." 

"  And  Haggle  is  dead  !"  retorted  he,  darkly.  "  I  take. 
Your  hashes  three  each  day  ate  he,  physicians  were  in 
vain.  Madam,  the  late  Haggle  may  have  been  willing  to 
go ;  but  I  am  not.  I  am  weary  of  hash.  There  must  be 
a  change." 

"And  do  you  think,  sir,"  sneered  the  lady,  using  her 
wisp  as  a  toothpick,  "  that  merely  because  your're  a  Man, 
you  have  a  right  to  tell  a  Woman  do  this  and  she  doeth 
it,  go  there  and  she  goeth  it?  Hoes  your  footy  little 
board  buy  my  independence,  as  in  everyway  man's  equal, 
from  me  ?  No,  Aster ;  and  I  won't  have  you  telling  me 
it  does.  The  tyranny  of  your  sex  has  put  it  upon  woman 
to  set  the  table,  and  if  your  sex  don't  like  hash,  it  can 
lump  it." 

"  It's  too  lumpy  already,"  ejaculated  the  much-endur- 
ing man,  "  and  you  cooked  your  thimble  in  it  last  night. 
After  eating  of  it  I  have  frequently  dreamt  that  I  dwelt 
in  marble  halls;  while  Orlonzo  plunges  and  moans  on 
the   shake-down  to  that  extent  that  I  sometimes  think 


78  THE   CIRCUMAMBIENT   HEIR. 

he  must  Lave  swallowed  something  alive.     Do  you  hear, 
madam  ?     Something  alive  /" 

"Don't  you  dare  raise  your  voice  to  me,  sir!"  cried 
Mrs.  Haggle,  in  a  manly  voice ;  at  the  same  time  bring- 
ing down  her  fist  smartly  on  her  knee.  "I've  been  a 
brother  to  you  and  that  boy,  and  now  }tou  fling  sarcaz- 
zums  in  my  face  for  it !  Hav'n't  you  told  me  about  your 
family  troubles  ;  and  haven't  I  told  you,  over  and  over 
again,  that  meat  cut  fine  is  more  fattening'for  them  that 
is  reduced  in  that  way  than  anything  else  except  tripe  ? 
And  you  won't  have  tripe.  Hav'n't  you  refused  to  tripe, 
in  language  that  I  repeated  in  my  speech  at  the  Sorosis 
last  evening  and  was  frantically  applauded  ?  You  don't 
know  how  to  appreciate  a  woman,  my  good  man  ;  but 
when  we  get  votes,  and  sing  bass,  perhaps  you'll  think 
that  she  can  at  least  drive  a  dray !" 

"I  hate  the  women  of  both  sexes,"  gnashed  Aster, 
goaded  to  frenzy  by  her  subtle  feminine  irony ;  and  he 
walked  the  floor  in  a  tempest  of  wrathful  recollection. 
"  But  for  a  Woman,  I  might  now  be  eating  broiled  chick- 
en in  a  rosewood  chair. — Madam  " — he  paused  suddenly 
before  her  and  savagely  clutched  his  vest — "I'll  be  re- 
venged upon  women.  I'll  marry  one ;  one  with  the 
stamps  :  and  feed  her,  by  Heavens  !  on  hash.  I'll  borrow 
some  of  your  hair  to  put  in  it,  too  ;  because  I've  noticed 
that  your  hair  never  cooks  crispy.'' 

"What  Mrs.  Haggle  might  have  replied  to  this  bitter 
outburst  of  a  tortured  soul,  was  averted  by  a  rushing 
sound  in  the  hall,  and  a  tumultuous  dash  into  the  room 
of  Orlonzo  Goggle,  bearing  something  of  a  pillowy  shape 
in  his  arms. 

u  I've  played  my  points,"  carolled  the  enthusiastic  boy, 
striking  up  a  kind  of  barbaric  dance  between  landlady 
and  lodger  ;    "  Vve  played  my  points !" 


THE   CTR0UMA.M3IENT    HEIR.  79 

"  Why !  I  do  believe — "  screamed  Mrs.  Haggle. 

"  Boy  !"  gasped  Aster,  recoiling  as  from  a  spectre. 

"  I've  fetched  the  kid,  Gen'ral,"  chuckled  the  shapeless 
youth,  suddenly  releasing  a  satin -capped  little  head  from 
under  his  arm,  and  placing  a  Baby  on  the  floor. 

"  Yah-a-a-ah,  ah-yah,  ah-yah-ah-ah  1" 

To  say  that  the  look  cast  upon  Mr.  Aster  by  Mrs.  Hag- 
gle was  Awful,  would  be  doing  gross  injustice  to  the  word 
Withering.  To  say  that  Mr.  Aster  turned  frightfully 
Red  under  it,  would  be  a  culpable  oversight  of  the  terms 
fatally  Crimson. 

"  As — ter !     And  in  My  house  I" 

"  No ;  you  bet !  In  the  missuses  house,"  corrected  Or- 
lonzo,  his  mouth  stretched  alarmingly. 

As — tee  ! — I  think  I'd  better  go." 

Down  upon  the  wretched  boy  pounced  the  crazed  As- 
ter, like  a  vulture  of  eccentric  shape  and  infirm  temper 
on  an  imprudent  young  pullet.  Fiercely  he  shook  him, 
until  the  trailing  faded  blue  military  overcoat  and  rag- 
fair  of  a  cap  combined  to  the  eye  like  one  of  Macbeth's 
witches. 

"  You  sinister  scorpion !  "Where  did  you  find — This-s-s  ?" 

"  Oh,  see  here,  now,  this  is  played — this  is,"  piped  the 
youth,  dexterously  slipping  out  of  both  cap  and  coat,  and 
dancing  backward  with  fists  in  position.  "  What's  the 
good  of  goin'  and  tryin'  to  punch  a  man  that  aint  yer 
size  ?  Why  don't  you  take  and  hurt  the  kid  that's  been 
playin'  points  to  get  your  rhino  ?" 

"  Ha !"  ejaculated  his  adopted  sire,  staggering  as  from 
a  blow,  and  with  bone  eyeglasses  gleaming  new  meaning 
at  the  infant  howling  on  the  carpet. — "Not  my  half- 
bur-rother  V 

"  That's  the  little  cuss,"  assented  the  once  more  ecstatic 


80  THE    CIRCUMAMBIENT   HEIR. 

Goggle,  nodding  tempestuously.  "  The  gal  bad  him  out 
in  front  of  the  swell  crib  in  Jinkins  Place,  in  a  little  swell 
kerridge,  and  skooted  back  down  the  basement  a  minute 
fur  somethin'.  I  see  it, — 'cause  I'd  just  sold  my  last 
Hirruld  to  an  old  file  at  the  corner, — and  I  went  for  the 
kid,  and  fetched  him  bully  !" 

Aster  and  the  landlady  gasped  at  each  other,  after  the 
manner  of  two  gold  fish  in  a  tank  not  sufficiently  aerated. 

"Is  this  a  Providence?"  muttered  he. 

"  What's  to  be  done  ?"  panted  she. 

"I'd  strangle  it,  /would,"  suggested  Orlonzo. 

After  a  moment's  thought,  the  woman  lifted  the  babe 
from  the  floor  very  tenderly.  Ah,  yes.  Despite  all  the 
strong-mindedness  and  Sorosism  in  the  world,  she  couldn't 
change  the  nature  God  had  given  her,  and  was  still  a 
Woman,  of  the  Mother-sex,  for  all  her  short  hair.  She 
lifted  the  babe  as  only  a  woman  could,  and  made  the 
scowling  drayman  try  to  take  it  gracefully  as  only  a  man 
couldn't. 

"  You  must  carry  it  right  straight  back,  Aster." 

"  And  not — ?"     He  grinned  sinisterly. 

"  !No.     You  shan't  drownd  it  in  any  tub  of  mine." 

The  sorely  tempted  man  held  the  little  thing  about  as 
comfortably  as  though  it  had  been  a  can  of  nitroglycer- 
ine, and  eyed  it  with  thoughtful  hatred. 

"  Miserable  pink  little  wretch !"  were  the  words  literal- 
ly ground  from  his  heaving  chest.     "  Shall  I  take  no  re- 


venge 


?" 


"You'd  better  take  it  right  home  on  your  dray," 
urged  the  womanized  Mrs.  Haggle,  hastily,  "or  it'll 
squirm  worse  'n  that." 

"  Mrs.  Haggle,"  said  Aster,  a  ghastly  smile  stealing 
around  the  corners  of  his  moustache,  "  there  are  some  sacri- 


THE    CUMCTTMAMBIENT   HEIR.  81 

fices  that  human  nature  can't  be  exact  in  to  an  extreme.  The 
damp  imp  shall  live ;  but  my  wrongs  must  not  go  entirely 
unavenged. — Madam  " — with  a  demoniac  air  he  suddenly 
turned  the  infant  over  upon  its  face  on  his  left  arm, — 
"  Madam,  I'll  trouble  you  to  turn  your  head  away  for  a 
moment." 

She  obliged  him,  her  woman's  wit  instantly  compre- 
hending his  almost  maternal  purpose ;  and,  in  a  moment, 
the  howls  of  the  Tiny  Tim  were  accompanied  by  some 
such  sounds  as  E.  Forrest,  tragedian,  produces,  when,  in 
the  agonies  of  Spartacus,  he  repeatedly  smites  his  gladia- 
torial breast. 

"  And  now  I'll  take  it  home — you  purple  little  beast !" 
he  cried ;  something  new  having  come  to  his  thoughts, 
apparently,  to  exasperate  him  in  a  new  spot. 

Savagely  dragging  on  sombrero  and  Spanish  cloak,  he 
strode  swiftly  from  the  room  without  another  word,  leav- 
ing Mr.  Goggle  and  the  mistress  of  the  house  to  eye  each 
other  in  momentary  abstraction.  The  youth  was  the  first 
to  recover. 

"  It's  to  be  tookt  back  is  it  ?  After  a  man's  pickin'  it 
out  of  the  kerridge,  like  a  oyster,  and  dodgin'  the  peelers 
behind  more  'n  a  dozen  fat  uns !  Now  how's  the  Gen'ral 
ever  goin'  to  get  his  old  man's  spondulicks  ?  Oh,  }res ! 
He'll  get  it !  My  eye  he  will !  Muchly !— Maddim," — 
in  precocious  and  supernaturally  sarcastic  imitation  of  the 
gentleman's  late  manner — "  I'll  trouble  you  to  turn  your 
cocoanut  the  other  way  ;  I  want  to  cuss." 


4* 


82  STEPMOTHEE,    SIEE  AND   SON. 


X. 


STEPMOTHER,    SIEE   AND    SON. 


EIGHT  o'clock  a.m.,  in  Jinkins  Place;  and  the 
bright  sunlight  streaming  into  a  luxuriously  hand- 
some bedchamber  in  such  a  health-giving  sheet,  that 
stately  Mrs.  Aster  the  Second  bethought  her  of  the  doc- 
tor's interests  and  closed  the  yellow  damask  curtains 
on  it. 

She  was  a  fine  woman. — It's  painful  to  say  that,  when 
we  know  how  she  had  fooled  and  perverted  the  sick 
old  man  over  there  on  that  gloomy  cathedral  of  a 
rosewood  bedstead ;  but  some  of  the  most  artful  womanly 
malignity  in  the  world  does  seem  to  show  occasionally  in 
faces  and  figures  rather  superior  to  the  average  personal 
charms  of  severe  virtue, — and  she  was  a  fine  woman. 
Just  above  the  medium-height ;  noble  of  bust  and  statu- 
esque of  neck ;  crowned  with  hair  of  a  dark  auburn  hue, 
drawn  low  and  smooth  on  the  temples  with  a  severity 
safe  only  with  such  classic  brow  and  nose  as  hers ;  eyed 
like  Somebodyzini's  Madonna ;  and  having  chin  and  mouth 
indicative  of  Purpose.  Peculiar  eyebrows,  or  eyes  not 
matching  her  hair,  would  have  operated  neatly  as  a 
drawback  to  the  virtuous  aggressiveness  of  her  general 
expression,  had  she  possessed  them  ;  but  her  wickedness 
refused  to  dramatize  itself  in  any  such  style ;  and  the 


STEPMOTHER,    SIRE    AND   SON.  83 

general  similar  failure  of  sinister  womanly  characteristics 
to  come  out  in  eccentric  eyes  and  eyebrows  may  account 
for  the  fact,  that  all  Braddonized  ladies  are  not  immedi- 
ately arrested  on  suspicion  by  the  police,  when  they 
appear  in  public.  Mrs.  Asters  mouth  and  chin,  as  be- 
fore noted,  informed  her  face  with  Purpose,  which  is  a 
trait  of  countenance  not  common  enough  to  be  vulgar 
and  not  rare  enough  to  be  unique.  She  was  an  unques- 
tionably fine  woman  of,  say  thirty-eight ;  and  her  crimson- 
bound  cachemire  breakfast  robe  made  her  picturesque. 

Mr.  Aster  the  elder,  raised  high  on  his  couch  with  pil- 
lows, and  just  waking  from  a  doze,  watched  her  as  she 
drew  the  curtains,  and  beckoned  her  to  approach.  He 
was  the  wreck  of  a  fine  man  ;  the  gaunt,  white-haired 
spectre  of  the  handsomest  of  the  Asters ;  and,  withal,  an 
invalid  whose  sumptuous  surroundings  were  not  needed 
to  inform  the  beholder  that  he  had  been  a  dignified  Gen- 
tleman. 

"My  dear,"  asked  the  wife,  placing  a  cool  hand  on 
his  brow,  "  shall  I  ring  for  your  breakfast  now  ?" 

"  Not  immediately,  Adelaide."  His  voice  low  but 
distinct. 

"  You've  slept  a  little  at  last.     Are  you  refreshed  ?" 

"  Yes.  And  you,  my  child  ?  It  was  a  hard  night  for 
you.     Where  is  baby  ?" 

"  I  slept  more  than  you  thought,  and  baby  has  gone 
out  for  an  early  airing  around  the  the  block,  with  Jane." 

"  Is'nt  it  cold  for  that  ?" 

"  Why  it's  Indian  Summer  now,  you  know,  my  dear." 

"  Ah,  yes.  Sit  down  a  moment.  Adelaide,  I've  been 
dreaming  again  about  my  poor  boys." 

"  Yes  ?"     She  spoke  sadly  and  kindly. 

"  We  never  hear  from  them  now.     Never." 


84  STEPMOTHER,    SIRE   AND    SOX. 

"  You  forget,"  she  said,  sighing  and  looking  down, 
"what  Mr.  Stalker  told  you  about  John."  ' 

The  old  man  groaned  and  closed  his  eyes  for  a  mo- 
ment. 

"  Oh,  Adelaide,  can  that  be  true !  Has  a  son  of  mine 
sunk  to  be  a — thief?  Isn't  it  possible  that  Stalker  made 
a  mistake  ?  They've  been  away  five  years — I  think. 
They  must  have  changed  in  looks  ?" 

Mrs.  Aster  shook  her  head  sorrowfully,  and  patted  the 
long  thin  hand  nearer  her  on  the  coverlet. 

"  Mr.  Stalker  said  he  was  sure.  Besides,  John  admit- 
ted his  name  before  the  magistrate." 

Again  the  invalid  groaned  and  closed  his  eyes. 

"  Adelaide  " — he  had  enclosed  her  hand  between  his, 
and  was  looking  into  her  sympathizing  eyes  pitifully — 
a  I  did  not  drive  my  boys  away  from  me  ?  They  took 
an  unprovoked,  a  wTicked  dislike  to  you,  my  child,  and 
left  their  home  of  their  own  accord.     You  know  that '?" 

"Yes,  dear  Husband,  I  was  the  unhappy  cause."  And 
Mrs.  Aster  hid  her  face  on  the  pillow. 

"  My  dear,  I  meant  no  reproach  to  you,  God  knows. 
Don't  weep,  my  child.  They  are  unnatural,  ungrateful 
boys,  and  left  me,  and  hated  you,  because  I  would  not 
lead  a  lonely,  uncared-for  life  to  please  them." 

"  Perhaps  I,  and  my  poor  Theodore,  were  interlopers," 
murmured  the  wife,  her  comely  face  still  disconsolately 
hidden.  "  Strangers  coming  into  a  home  can  change  it 
very  much." 

"  But  you  and  Theodore  changed  it  for  the  better !" 
exclaimed  the  sick  man,  with  sudden,  angry  energy. 
"  Their  undutiful  selfishness  grudged  me  the  happiness  I 
found  in  it,  Adelaide.  They  were  angry  because  I  chose 
to  be  my  own  master,  and   preferred  your  counsel  to 


STEPMOTHER,    SIRE   AND    SOX.  85 

theirs.  We'll  think  no  more  about  them.  I  disown  them 
as  my  children  !"  __ 

"  Oh,  not  that." 

"  I  do.  They  have  deserted  me,  and  wronged  yon, 
and  onr  baby  shall  have  what  they  have  forfeited." 

All  of  which  was  virtually  the  repetition  of  a  conver- 
sation which  had  passed  between  husband  and  wife  a 
score  of  times  since  the  former  had  fallen  into  the  weak 
retrospective  qualms  of  the  sick-room. 

Mrs.  Asters  irreproachable  hand  Avas  on  the  bell-cord 
to  ring  for  breakfast,  when  a  sudden  noise  tumultuous 
from  down  stairs,  and  a  rushing,  stamping  sound  coming 
higher,  arrested  the  wifely  act.  Nov  had  she  more  than 
barely  taken  the  first  startled  step  toward  inquiry,  by 
opening  the  door  leading  into  a  hall,  when  a  man  in 
Spanish  cloak  and  sombrero  unceremoniously  brushed 
past  her  into  the  room ;  the  two  servants  flying  after 
him  being  only  stopped  at  the  threshold  by  her  presence 
there. 

A  younger  woman  would  have  shrieked,  a  weaker  one 
shrieked  and  fainted ;  but  this  lady  simply  turned  and 
stared,  until 

Until  she  saw  that  the  audacious  intruder  had  hastily 
placed  a  baby  on  the  nearest  chair. 

Then  she  convulsively  closed  the  door  in  the  faces  of 
the  two  panting  servants;  and  was  on  her  knees  beside 
the  baby,  and  up  again  with  it  in  her  arms,  and  down 
again  with  it  on  the  bedside,  in  less  time  than  it  took  the 
astonished  invalid  to  ascertain  that  something  else  than 
breakfast  had  come. 

M  Oh ! !  My  child  !  my  child  !"  . 

With  one  vigorous  hurl  of  his  whole  lank  body  the 
repentant  kidnapper-apparent  was  on  his  knees  beside 


86  STEPMOTHER,    SIRE   AND    SON. 


the  bedstead,  presenting  so  much  hat,  eyeglasses,  and 
cloak,  that  he  could  scarcely  have  been  recognized  even 
for  an  American. 

"  Father !"  cried  a  deep  voice.     a  Father !" 

"  John?" 

"  John !" 

The  first  John  was  by  the  old  man,  who  sat  upright, 
and  stared,  ghastly  and  incredulous,  at  his  son  :  the  sec- 
ond by  the  Stepmother,  who  sprang  to  her  feet,  recoiling. 

"  Yes,  Father,  your  own  boy :  come  back  to  ask 
pardon  for  whatever  he's  ever  done,  and  to  counteract  a 
viper !" 

u  And  you ?"  cried  the  Stepmother, — 

"And  I  brought  your  miserable  spankling  back,  in- 
stead of  adopting  it  out  through  the  Herald"  snarled 
young  Aster,  flashing  his  bone  eyeglasses  upon  her  like 
lightning. 

"  You  brought  it?"  she  ejaculated  in  a  suffocating 
voice,  turning  pale  as  death,  and  clasping  the  sobbing 
babe  so  closely  that  it  gasped. 

" Adelaide — John — what  is  this?"  panted  the  father, 
laboring  with  his  racking  breath. 

<(i  It  is  Retribution,"  was  the  son's  stern  answer. 
"  That  caricature  of  childish  innocence  was  snatched 
from  his  circumambulator  in  the  open  street,  scarcely 
half  an  hour  ago,  and  brought  to  me  for  vengeance.  I'll 
not  name  the  bringer ;  but  I  have  brought  back  the 
brought.  Examine  your  offspring,  woman,  and  see  if  a 
single  pin  in  him  is  misplaced." 

"Oh,  John,  John,"  groaned  Mr.  Aster,  the  while  his 
weak  hands  pushed  back  the  sombrero  and  vainly  tried  to 
remove  the  eyeglasses ;  "can  this  be  you,  my  son  ?    Com- 


STEPMOTHER,    SIRE    AND    SON.  87 

ing,  after  so  long,  in  this  way  %  What  have  you  done  ? 
Where  is  your  brother  ?" 

"  I  have  brought  safely  back,  sir,  that  woman's  pro- 
duction, when  I  might  have  drowned  it !  My  brother  is 
probably  at  some  government  station  since  the  war.  I 
am  poor,  and  drive  a  dray.  The  horse  is  scarcely  worth 
your  notice. " 

"  A  dray  !"  repeated  the  invalid,  aghast. 

"  A  dray :  upon  which  I  brought  that  screaming  result 
of  treachery  here  with  me  just  now ;  and  upon  which  I 
gave  a  short  ride  to  the  girl,  who  was  dragging  the  empty 
circumambulator  about  two  blocks  from  here,  afraid  to 
come  home  and  tell  you.  "  And  now,  Father/'  he  con- 
tinued, rising  proudly  to  his  feet,  "I've  shown  you  that  I 
still  live,  and  that  I'm  no  disgrace  to  you.  I  wanted 
you  to  know  that  much.  If  you  want  me  at  any  time, 
to  bring  home  a  barrel  of  flour,  or  haul  a  trunk,  my 
dray  is  !No.  41144,  and  I  live  at  22  Dame  Street.  I'm 
sorry  you're  sick,  and  I'm  just  as  sorry  that  you  prefer 
the  attentions  of  Mrs.  Aster  to  your  own  flesh  and 
blood." 

"  You  insolent,  ungrateful " 

The  sufferer  endeavored  to  lift  his  wasted  arms  in  pas- 
sionate malediction,  but  fell  helplessly  back  into  his  pil- 
lows at  the  effort,  too  weak  to  finish  it. 

Then  the  Stepmother,  who,  since  her  last  exclamation, 
had  been  standing  silent  as  some  maternal  statue,  spoke, 
in  her  usual  soft  voice  and  ladylike  manner : 

"  John,  you  must  never  come  here  again  while  your 
father  is  so  ill,  if  you  can  not  respect  him  enough  to 
speak  more  like  a  gentleman  of  his  wife.  I  am  indiffer- 
ent on  my  own  account,  but  you  see  how  you  have 
afflicted  him.    You  see,  also,  that  he  has  turned  his  back 


88  STEPMOTHER,    SIRE   AND    SOX 


to  you  and  will  say  no  more,  now.     Had  you  not  better 
go?" 

Jack  Aster,  Drayman,  removed  Lis  sombrero  for  the 
first  time,  and  bowed  profoundly. 

"Madame,  I  drive  a  buckskin  horse  at  present  for  a 
living,  and  board  with  a  woman  who  wants  to  vote ;  but, 
upon  my  word,  there's  enough  refinement  left  in  me  to 
appreciate  such  a  perfect  work  of  art  as  you  are.  You're 
such  irresistible  high  Art  that  you've  succeeded  in  over- 
coming Nature  in  a  father's  heart,  and  turning  that  heart 
against  the  son.  From  the  very  first,  you  were  Art 
against  Nature ;  but  I  warn  you,  Madam,  I  warn  you, 
that  if  you  go  to  the  extent  of  trying  to  even  collect  the 
debt  of  Nature,  you  may  possibly  be  prosecuted  by  the 
natural  creditors." 

Something  in  that  warning  must  have  stung  her,  for 
her  nostrils  worked  curiously  ;  yet  her  voice  in  reply  was 
gentle  and  steady  as  before. 

M  I  tell  you  again,  John,  that  your  feeling  toward  me, 
whether  just  or  unjust,  affects  me  in  no  way.  I  am  your 
father's  wife,  however,  and  do  not  choose  to  remain  silent 
as  to  your  accusation  virtually  against  him.  lie  has 
judged  you  for  himself,  and  well  knows  why  you  wear 
this  drayman's  disguise " 

"  But,  it  is  not " 

" — and  pretend  to  have  been  nothing  else  than  a  dray- 
man. He  knows,  from  one  to  whom  you  even  confessed 
your  name,  that  your  real  way  of  living  is  by  picking 
pockets  ;  and " 

"Hay?" 
" — that  you  are  at  any  moment  liable  to*  re-arrest,  for 
having  escaped  by  violence  from  the  custody  of  the  police 
authorities ; " 


STEPMOTHER,    SIRE    AND    SOX.  89 

"  Now,  by  all  the " 

u — who  do  not  pursue  you  at  present,  because  the  prop- 
erty was  recovered.  Your  father  has  learned,  from  his 
own  judgment,  and  not  from  any  counsel  of  mine,  to 
distrust  the  worth  of  a  son  who,  after  years  of  desertion, 
is  h'rst  heard  of  as  stealing  an  old  man's  watch " 

"  Hay  I* 
— "  and  then  not  even  having  the  grace  to  conceal  the 
honorable  name  dishonored  by  the  act ;  even  though  the 
questioner  had  no  official  power  to  enforce  an  answer  to 
his  question,  but  asked  it  to  see  if  any  shame  still  re- 
mained in  your  breast.  Your  father  could  ascertain  for 
himself,  and  without  my  suggestions,  that,  while  you 
and  your  brother  were  at  home,  your  sole  idea  was  the 
alienation  of  his  regard  from  every  one  save  yourself- ;' 

"  Madam,  I -" 

" — and  that  you  stole  from  his  private  safe,  and  carried 
away  with  you,  the  Will  made  by  him " 

"  Hay  V> 
" — when  he  believed  you  to  be  worthy  of  his  greatest 
testamentary  generosity,  and  which  he  subsequently  re- 
voked by  making  another,  though  not  at  the  solicitation 
of  me  or  mine ;  wherein  you  and  your  brother  were 
righteously  punished  for  your  unnatural  behaviour,  by 
bequests  materially  lessened " 

(The  exhausted  Aster  was  now  hastening  down  stairs 
from  the  sick-chamber  with  fingers  thrust  into  his  ears, 
and  she  after  him  with  the  baby.) 

" — and  so  worded  that,  in  case  of  farther  offence  on 
your  part,  or  on  the  part  of  your  brother,  they,  too, 
would  be  forfeited,  and  the  whole  property  go  to  those 
who,  while  he  was  abandoned  and  disgraced  by  his  own 
sons,  were  true  to  him  in  sickness  as  in  health,  tending 


90  TEDIUM    LARDNEROUS. 

him  with  a  solicitude  such  as  only  a  "Wife  and  Stepson 
could  show,  heeding  his  every  wish  and  whim,  standing 
between  him  and  the  undutiful  violence  of  a  son  not  too 
honorable  to  crown  a  career  of  error  by  planning  the  ab- 
duction of  an  innocent  babe  whose " 

Slam !  went  the  heavy  hall-door,  and  the  discarded  son 
fairly  reeled  to  his  dray  at  the  curb,  his  bone  eye-glasses 
all  awry,  and  his  whole  romantic  air  eloquent  of  danger- 
ous mental  and  physical  prostration.  Another  five  min- 
utes, and  he  had  been  talked  to  death  ! 


XI. 

TEDIUM   LARDNEROUS. 

REGINALD  LAKDNER,  Esquire,  Dealer  in  Hides 
and  Magnate  of  "  the  Swamp,"  was  one  of  those 
American  mushrooms  of  wealth  whose  supercilious  ab- 
stinence from  bar-room  socialities,  and  disinclination  for 
lengthy  familiar  conversations  with  hiccupping  strangers 
on  the  horse-cars,  show  what  conceited  upstarts  they  are. 
When  a  man  of  his  stamp  gives  dinner-parties ;  and 
not  only  gives  dinner-parties,  but  also  addresses  his  guests 
upon  other  topics  than  the  latest  excitement  in  beef  tal- 
low, or  the  recent  unaccountable  fall  in  prime  South 
American,  he  at  once  challenges  the  bitterest  sarcasm  of 
any  author  who,  from  chronic  untidiness  of  hair  and  col- 
lars, or  a  too  great  addiction  to  other  gentlemen's  wives, 
has  been  accidentally  omitted  from  one  or  two  fashiona- 
ble family  gatherings  in  mercantile  circles,  and  furnishes 


TEDIUM    LARDNEROUS.  91 

him  with  such  rich  satirical  matter  as  shall  sometimes 
help  along  a  lame  story  wonderfully. 

If  Mr.  Lardner  could  read  (of  which  there  were  grave 
doubts  in  distinguished  literary  society),  he  must  have 
been  aware,  that  anything  social  in  his  doings,  beyond 
the  explicit  advertising  requirements  of  Hides,  was  sure 
to  make  him  an  object  of  withering  intellectual  contempt, 
and  afford  just  the  scathing  Chapter  some  badly  tangled 
novelist  wanted  to  help  a  few  of  his  more  rascally  char- 
acters a  move  or  two  onward ;  yet  he  gave  a  dinner-party 
which  was  not  visibly  connected  with  Hides ;  and  for- 
feited his  only  possible  chance  of  escape  from  retributive 
publication,  by  failing  to  invite  certain  eminent  literary 
men  who  could  have  conversed  learnedly  upon  atheism, 
and  picked  their  teeth  at  his  table. 

u  Pa,"  observed  the  daughter  of  this  ignorant  mush- 
room, as  she  sat  at  her  rosewood  dream  of  a  desk  in  the 
(useless-to-him,  of  course)  Library,  "  you  never  gave 
Cousin  John's  card  back  to  me,  and  how  am  I  to  send 
his  invitation  V 

"  I  think  I  must  have  tossed  the  card  into  the  grate 
that  night,  when  he  offended  me  so  grossly  by  his  re- 
marks about  Mr.  Gayle,"  returned  the  mushroom.  "If 
you  are  so  tender  to  his  wonderful  sensibilities,  Lucy,  you 
may  at  least  prepare  a  future  defence  for  yourself,  against 
cousinly  accusations  of  neglect,  by  simply  addressing 
your  invitation  to  the  general  c  care '  of  '  Xew  York  City,' 
and  sending  it  to  the  General  Post  Office.  There's  a 
chance  that  he  may  see  it  advertised,  before  the  day,  in 
the  published  list  of  letters  remaining  uncalled  for." 

"  Well,  Pa,  then  I  shall  certainly  do  that ;  for  I 
wouldn't  have  the  poor  fellow  think  we  had  slighted 
him.     I'm  sorry  he  treated  you  as  he  did  ;  but  I'm  sure 


92  TEDIUM   LARDNEEOrS. 

you  can  make  allowance  for  the  tortures  of  a  proud  na- 
ture under  a  sense  of  unmerited  and  humiliating  adver- 
sity."* 

"  But  a  proud  nature  need  not  turn  ruffianly  under  its 
troubles,"  was  the  disgusting  suggestion  of  the  mush- 
room. "  The  young  fellow  positively  treated  me  without 
any  respect  at  all !  However,  he  is  one  of  your  eccen- 
trics, I  suppose,  and  I'll  not  let  him  vex  me  too  much 
until  after  I've  seen  what  I  can  do  for  him  and  his  brother 
with  his  father.  I  certainly  hope,  though,  Lucy,  that,  if 
he  comes  to  dinner,  he  will  at  least  suspend  his  dray- 
man's manners  for  that  occasion." 

"  Of  course  he  will,  Pa,"  responded  Lucy,  warmly. 
"  He's  a  gentleman  by  birth,  you  know,  and  it  comes 
natural  to  any  one  who  has  ever  been  a  gentleman  to 
conduct  like  one  at  table,  at  least."  (Unsophisticated 
girl!)  "I  can't  help  thinking,  too,  that  we  shall  find 
him  very  different  when  he  comes  this  time.  We  know 
how  proudly  sensitive  he  used  to  be  about  his  position, 
when  you  first  brought  him  home ;  and  to  come  here 
again  as  a  common  drayman  ;  and  after  I'd  been  so  fool- 
ishly timid,  too,  as  not  to  speak  to  him  from  the  carriage, 
was  enough  to  make  him  act  stiffly.  Why,  Pa  !  he  is  so 
morbid  in  his  pride,  that  whenever  I  said  anything  to 
him  that  evening,  after  you'd 'gone  to  the  Club,  about 
what  had  happened  to  him  while  he  first  knew  us,  he 
seemed  actually  incredulous  of  the  evidence  of  his  ears. 
It  amounts  to  a  disease.  I  think  it  pains  him  to  hear  one 
word  about  the  past." 

"  Or  even  to  be  reminded  that  we  are  his  relatives. 
But,  as  I  said  before,  I'll  not  notice  John's  dray  man  isms 
too  particularly,  until  I've  done  what  I  can  for  him." 

Thus  spoke  the  mushroom. — Who,  by  the  way,  might 


TEDIUM   LARDNEEOUS.  03 

have  been  more  fittingly  and  intelligently  occupied  in 
sorting  Hides  than  in  criticising  other  people. 

The  day  of  the  upstart  dinner  arrived,  and  with  it 
about  a  dozen  well-dressed  persons  of  both  sexes  and  no 
intellect,  and  three  Beats  who  acquiesced  readily  in  all 
that  those  persons^said — when  there  was  no  particular 
reason  to  dissent.  Came  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Grimky,  <>f  In- 
numerable Street,  worth  at  least  a  dozen  brown-stone 
blocks,  yet  had  never  read  Browning's  last  poem  ;  came 
Mr.  Sniffers,  of  Wall  Street,  so  deep  and  dull  in  the 
Share  Market,  that  he  hardly  knew  there  was  such  a 
book  as  Byron  Cox's  "  Dreams  of  a  Maniac  ;"  came  Mr. 
Richardson,  an  English  author  on  his  travels,  (And  the 
American  Byron  Cox  not  asked  ?  But  let  it  pass !) ; 
came  Mr.  Bozwood,  nominally  a  silent  member  of  the 
American  book-selling  firm  having  the  contract  to  show 
Mr.  Richardson  in  the  principal  cities,  but  really  a  dis- 
guised detective  kept  perpetually  at  Richardson's  elbow 
to  see  that  no  other  booksellers  got  a  literary  engagement 
out  of  him ;  came  the  supercilious  Mrs.  Thompson- 
Street,  (maiden  name  of  Thompson.  First  Thompsons 
English.  Came  over  with  the  Conqueror — as  kitchen- 
servants,  probably,)  accompanied  by  old  Street,  her  hus- 
band, who  had  no  hyphen  in  his  name,  and  was  as  ignor- 
antly  rich  as  unintellectual  stupidity  always  is  ;  came 
Mr.  Gayle  ;  and  came  a  clergyman  or  so. 

Mr.  Lardner's  furniture  was  all  imported ;  nearly  all 
his  servants  were  imported  ;  he  labored  under  a  common 
delusion  that  his  wines  and  segars  were  imported  ;  and 
he  received  his  guests  with  important  expressions  of  im- 
ported sentiments  of  dire  import. 

"  Mr.  Richardson,"  said  Mr.  Lardner,  in  his  most  im- 
ported manner,  speaking  to  the  Euglish  author,  "  you 


TEDIUM    LAEDNEK0U8. 


"But   don't  you  remember,  Cousin  Tolm 
hoi  ed  liim  last  time  I"  ' 

4  M\  pride,  Lncy;  mv  Man's  pride  would  not  -rmit       'i 

•  other*  ise." 
"Oh  yea,  arse:  don*!  mind  my  nonsense  But 

Pa  would  have  preferred  to  deal  with  you  as  a  n- hew, 

D  knOM  .  r  than  U  a  «lr:i\ man/'  I 

"Hai  I 

•h  jumped;   the  one  with  speaking,  the  ot  r  at       '! 
the  sudden   exclamation;    and  several  psons 
I  into  jumping  also. 
*F  '■■fir   by  the  window,  Cousin  thn," 

Id  1   i      •  <  tied    and  conscience-stricken  young  ady,         I 

'•  i  can    talk    a   moment  by  our;  ves. 

•■  Don't   I  sharply,"  (he  was  staring  right  thtagh 

•  head  ;)  "1  didn't  mean  it.     You  must  try  to  1  less 

with  ;/c      W.  \c  only  a  minute  before  Di  ter's 

ad   1  want   to  say  something  particu  •  to 

-  i  friend.     Hi  en  Dollie  Dapple  nee 

la  well  ti'll  vou,"  sighed  Aster.     u  No." 
u  \\\11.  til     ,    ■'-  I  shamel      You'd  better  see  her  >on, 
d  her,  and  she  saw  yon  coming  <t  o# 
a    house    the    ether  morning   with — with — oh,  Cisin 

thing  Crying  in  your  arms,  anc  -" 
-  Hay  r 

B  :h  jumped  :  and  before  another  syllable  could  iss, 
tnoT  was  announ  aid  Mr.  Gayle  advanced,  ith 

laim  his  usual  privilege  of  esfcrt- 
inc  Miss  Lardner  to  the  table. 

u  |  on  have  your  romantic  drayman  here  to-cy, 

whispered  the  fine  old  gentleman,  as  they  marchec  to- 
ward the  dining-room,   "and  dumbfounded  enougl  he 


TEDIUM 


I   at  my  n  n  him.      1:  tt  bad 

loring  person  withomt  that  great  hat  •  I 

urv  laughed,  Imr  made  no  reply. 

t  dinner  in  Lardner  P 
ot  been  invited  to  it,  was  litth  •  k 
nut  of  so  many  pi 
cc  template,  with  a  due  I 

rted  Lardner  p] 
owwhelmed  by  Mr.    I 
li\r  a  charge  aboul  aomethii 

Mr.  Sniffi 
Wall  Street  figun 
"  idee  MacFinnigan 
tbt  case  of  yours  t  tin    ' 

1 1  y.    I  never  heard  of  such  la' 

He's  a  b  dcr  in  tl  •    R    • 

M  Sniffers,  gloomily. 

I  Bnpposed  ai  tin 
:n   spurious  monarchial  air. 

Vilaiicr  Committees  in  t:  in  a  \s 

j(  know,  sir.    Th<  r 
;    been  one  more  recent! 
bl  you,  as  a  foreigner, 
u.  mlent  democracy  :  hut  I  . 
shply  the  last   an<l   i  • 

oiraged  by  an  infamous  and  lawless  I 

w  tings — " 

Mr,  Richardaon  will  write  noth 
."  put  in  Mr.  D 

Excuse  dp  .       plained  M:    I 
sej-importaneo,  "1  should  hare  Mid,  tl 
Rmardson'a  past  writings  -  P         ritingi — have 
'    a  different  view  of  this  m 
5 


96  TEDIUM   LAKDNEEOUS. 

and  smiling.     "  But  don't  you  remember,  Cousin  John, 
how  you  served  him  last  time?" 

"  My  pride,  Lucy ;  my  Man's  pride  would  not  permit 
me  to  act  otherwise." 

"  Oh  yes,  of  course :  don't  mind  my  nonsense.  But 
Pa  would  have  preferred  to  deal  with  you  as  a  nephew, 
you  know,  rather  than  as  a  drayman." 

"Hay?" 

Both  jumped ;  the  one  with  speaking,  the  other  at 
hearing  the  sudden  exclamation ;  and  several  persons 
near  them  were  electrified  into  jumping  also. 

kt  Please  come  here  by  the  window,  Cousin  John," 
said  the  startled  and  conscience-stricken  young  lady, 
"  There  !  Now  we  can  talk  a  moment  bv  ourselves. 
"  Don't  look  so  sharply,"  (he  was  staring  right  through 
her  head  ;)  u  I  didn't  mean  it.  You  must  try  to  be  less 
sensitive  with  me.  We've  only  a  minute  before  Dinner's 
announced,  and  I  want  to  say  something  particular  to 
you,  as  a  friend.  Have  you  seen  Dollie  Dapple  since 
you  were  here  last  ?" 

"  I  may  as  well  tell  you,"  sighed  Aster.     "  No." 

"  Well,  then,  it's  a  shame  !  You'd  better  see  her  soon, 
sir ;  for  I  have  seen  her,  and  she  saw  you  coming  out  of 
a  house  the  other  morning  with — with — oh,  Cousin 
John  ! — with — Something  Crying  in  your  arms,  and — " 

"  Hat  ?" 

Both  jumped  ;  and  before  another  syllable  could  pass, 
dinner  was  announced,  and  Mr.  Gayle  advanced,  with 
jealous  quickness,  to  claim  his  usual  privilege  of  escort- 
ing Miss  Lardner  to  the  table. 

"  I  see  you  have  your  romantic  drayman  here  to-day," 
whispered  the  fine  old  gentleman,  as  they  marched  to- 
ward the  dining-room,  "and  dumbfounded  enough  he 


TEDIUM    LARDNEROUS.  97 

looked  at  my  rescue  of  you  from  him.     He's  not  a  bad 
looking  person  without  that  great  hat  of  his." 

Lucy  laughed,  but  made  no  reply. 

A  dinner  in  Lardner  Place,  especially  for  those  who 
had  not  been  invited  to  it,  was  little  else  than  an  arraign- 
ment of  so  many  prisoners  at  the  Lardner  bar,  there  to 
contemplate,  with  a  due  sense  of  native  criminality,  the 
imported  Lardner  plate  and  monogram,  and  be  helplessly 
overwhelmed  by  Mr.  Lardner's  persistent  efforts  to  de- 
liver a  charge  about  something  else  than  Hides. 

"  Mr.  Sniffers,"  said  the  infatuated  Lardner,  addressing 
that  Wall  Street  figure-head  over  a  glass  of  Burgundy, 
"  Judge  MacFinnigan  issued  a  rather  curious  order  in 
that  case  of  yours  against  the  Universal  Railroad  Com- 
pany.    I  never  heard  of  such  law !" 

"  He's  a  heavy  stockholder  in  the  Road,"  explained 
Mr.  Sniffers,  gloomily. 

"  I  supposed  as  much."  This  with  his  imported  nod, 
and  spurious  monarcliial  air.  "  Mr.  Richardson,  we  have 
Vigilance  Committees  in  this  country  once  in  a  while,  as 
you  know,  sir.  There  was  one  in  San  Francisco  once,  and 
has  been  one  more  recently  at  Seymour,  Indiana.  Proba- 
bly you,  as  a  foreigner,  have  taken  them  for  signs  of  a 
turbulent  democracy ;  but  I  can  assure  you  that  they  are 
simply  the  last  and  necessary  resort  of  a  lawful  people 
outraged  by  an  infamous  and  lawless  Judiciary.  In  your 
writings — " 

"  Mr.  Richardson  will  write  nothing,  under  any  cir- 
cumstances," put  in  Mr.  Bozwood,  flurriedly. 

"  Excuse  me,"  explained  Mr.  Lardner,  with  unshaken 
self-importance,  "  I  should  have  said,  that  some  of  Mr. 
Richardson's  past  writings — Past  writings — have  indica- 
ted a  different  view  of  this  matter." 
£ 


98  TEDIUM   LARDNEEOUS. 

The  man  was  bent  on  ignoring  every  one  else  in  his 
conversation  save  the  one  he  had  directly  addressed,  and 
esteemed  this  kind  of  tyranny  his  right.  If  one  can  be 
bitter  on  a  man  at  his  own  dinner-table,  one  might  say 
that  he  might  much  better  have  stuck  to  prime  South 
American. 

Mr.  Richardson  had  been  checked  across  the  table,  by 
Mr.  Bozwood,  in  attempting  to  talk  with  one  of  his 
neighbors,  Mrs.  Thompson-Street,  who  was  known  to 
know  a  city  publisher,  and  now  turned  to  his  other  neigh- 
bor, Mr.  Aster.  The  author  was  a  handsomely-dressed, 
mild-looking  little  Englishman,  and  as  he  noticed  the  ex- 
traordinary toilet  and  rather  fierce  air  of  that  young  man, 
the  magnetism  of  contrast  brought  them  into  sympathy 
at  once. 

"  You  appear,  sir,  to  be  unhappy,"  he  whispered,  trem- 
ulously. 

"In  purgatory!"  hissed  Aster,  buttering  a  roll  with 
bloodthirsty  slashes  of  the  knife.  "  I'm  misunderstood 
here.     This  do'n't  seem  to  be  my  sphere." 

"  Exactly  my  case,"  almost  groaned  Mr.  Richardson, 
but  under  his  breath.  "I  can  sympathize  with  you. 
But  how  would  you  feel " — glancing  affrightedly  toward 
Bozwood — "  to  have  a  detective  over  you  every  moment, 
as  though  you'd  stolen  somebody's  watch,  or " 

"Hay«" 

Away  flew  Aster's  roll,  as  the  exclamation  came  from 
his  lips  like  a  shot ;  and  his  eyes  stood  out  like  bullets. 

"  Bless  my  soul !"  ejaculated  the  startled  author. 
"  You've  frightened  everybody  half  to  death.  I  did'nt 
mean  " — in  a  whisper  again, — u  that  I  had  done  any  thing 
wrong.  But  that  Bozwood  over  there  has  been  put  over 
me  to  see  that  I  don't  talk  with  literary  people,  and  he 


TEDIUM    LARDNEEOUS.  99 

sticks  to  me  like  fate.  I  can't  stir  an  inch  anywhere 
without  him. — I  wish,"  muttered  the  poor  Englishman, 
with  deep  passion — "  I  wish  Bozwood  was  dead !" 

Mr.  Richardson,  in  his  heartbroken  state  of  surveillance, 
and  desperate  appeal  for  sympathy,  was  not  a  speaker  to 
be  justly  suspected  of  double  meaning:  but  Aster's  eye- 
glasses instantly  focussed  upon  his  mild  countenance  a 
stare  of  mad  suspicion ;  and  Aster's  agitated  self  stalked 
stealthily  from  the  board  immediately  after  the  ladies  had 
retired,  and  (through  Alphonse)  compassed  a  stolen  inter- 
view with  Miss  Lardner  in  a  small  reception-room  near 
the  street-door. 

He  had  assumed  his  sombrero  and  Spanish  cloak  when 
she  came  wonderingly  in,  and  caught  her  hand  and  drew 
it  frantically  to  him  very  much  as  though  it  had  been 
the  end  of  a  safety-rope. 

"  Miss  Lardner  !  Miss  Lucy  !  Lucy!  Cousin!  I  mast 
fly  from  here  at  once.  There's  a  man  at  the  table  who 
shares  the  horrible  suspicions  of  the  world : — suspicions 
I  have  adopted  this  old  hat,  .cloak  and  eyeglasses,  to 
baffle  for  a  time.     Only  for  a  time " 

"  Suspicions,  Cousin  John!     What  suspicions?" 

"  May  I  confide  in  you,  Woman  ?" 

"  Indeed  you  may." 

"  And ^ou'll  never  speak  of  it  to  human  soul : — not  even 
to  me  again,  unless  I  ask  you  ?" 

"Never,  Cousin  John.     You  may  rely  on  me." 

"I  am  unjustly  suspected — I  never  told  it  to  living 
creature  before — of — Crime  /" 

"  Oh !  Can  it  be  ?" 

"  Of  Stealing." 

"Oh!" 

"  And   I'm    innocent.     By    the   great   boots,   I  am ! 


100  THE   CHIVALRY    OF   PHYSIO. 

There's  Woman's  hate— ray  Stepmother's  hate — in  the 
accursed  plot.  A  man  in  there  at  the  table  asked  me, 
just  now,  how  I  would  like  to  be  followed  by  a  detective, 
as  though  I'd  stolen  somebody's  watch  ?  It  was  a  watch, 
and  the  owner  got  it  back.  You  can  see  that  it  will  not 
do  for  me  to  stay  here." 

Lucy  stared  up  at  his  eyeglasses  in  momentary  confu- 
sion and  terror;  and  then  answered, 

"I'm  sure  you  are  innocent,  John,  and  thank  you  for 
your  confidence.  Promise  me  to  come  to  us  again,  if  you 
must  go  in  this  unhappy  way  now.  Pa  feels  as  kindly 
toward  you  as  I  do,  believe  me,  and  will  help  you  in 
your  trouble." 

"  I'll  come  to  You,  at  any  rate." 

He  left  her;  hastening  to  the  street  with  such  clanking 
sounds  as  arise  from  boots  so  worn  that  the  soles  flap  in 
partial  independence  of  their  uppers  ;  and  she  went  back 
to  the  unsuspecting  company  in  the  drawing-room,  with 
the  clouded  impressions  of  four  dusty  masculine  fingers 
on  both  back  and  palm  of  her  white  right  hand. 


XI. 

THE   CHIVALRY   OF   PHYSIC. 

DOCTOR  THEODORE  DANFORTII  was  one  of 
those  mild,  slender,  pale,  largo-nosed  young  men, 
who  frequently  escape  the  damaging  charge  of  kt  homeli- 
ness," .by  that  extreme  stretch  of  the  friendly  imagina- 
tion which  declares  them  to  be  Intellectually  beautiful. 


THE  CHIVALRY  OF  PHYSIC  101 

Straight  black  hair  parted  in  the  middle,  and  thrust  be- 
hind the  ears,  not  unfrequently  lends  yeoman's  help  to 
this  most  amiable  of  fictions,  and  a  pair  of  premature 
steel  spectacles  casting  faint  blue  tints  under  the  eyes, 
have  been  known  to  go  farther  in  its  substantiation  than 
would  fifty  poems  a  year  in  the  Sunday  papers.  Conse- 
quently, by  the  aid  of  these  last  intellectualities,  our 
youthful  medicus  looked  as  though  he  should  be  at  least 
an  emotional  pianist ;  or,  at  any  rate,  escaped  any  possi- 
ble identification  with  that  type  of  superlative  but  rather 
unintelligent  splendor  in  physique  which  is  almost  exclu- 
sively represented  in  this  country  by  policemen,  hotel- 
keepers  and  express-drivers. 

The  Doctor  (as  he  was  by  courtesy,  though  still  a  stu- 
dent in  reality)  sat  before  the  small  grate  of  his  decidedly 
small  room  in  Riverside  Hospital,  his  nether  limbs  termi- 
nating on  the  mantelpiece  over  the  fire  in  that  acute 
slant,  of  American  invention,  which  is  currently  believed 
to  help  settle,  or  syphonize,  the  understanding  into  the 
head,  and  in  his  hands  that  great  medical  authority  known 
as  "  Thaddeus  of  Warsaw." 

Why  should  we  be  mystical  about  this  young  walker 
of  a  hospital  ?  His  hair,  spectacles  and  abstruse  readings, 
might,  indeed,  justify  us  to  our  lovely  curl-paper  readers 
in  making  dark  ado  about  his  parentage ;  but  our  pub- 
lisher pays  us  nothing  extra  for  that  kind  of  thing,  and 
the  subject  of  our  remarks  had  a  preference  for  being  dis- 
tinctly known  as  one  who  had  never  been  disowned  by 
his  parents.  In  short,  he  was  son,  by  Husband  the  First, 
of  Mrs.  Aster  the  Second,  and  diverged  so  far  from  being 
a  genuine  hero  of  romance  as  to  decline  living  on  his 
mother. 

In  the  agonies  of  medical  study,  he  had  reached  that 


lA^'  THE- CJTIVALET   OF  PHYSIC. 

febrile  page  wherein  Thaddeus,  under  the  influence  of 
English  Porter,  gets  into  jail ;  and  was,  perhaps,  reflect- 
ing, that  if  Thaddeus  had  been  an  Irishman,  and  the  jail 
in  New  York,  he  could  have  gotten  out  easily  enough  by 
the  simple  presentation  of  a  bar-tender's  certificate  to  his 
friend,  Justice  O'Blackstone, — when  a  timid  knocking  at 
his  door  caused  him  to  tumble  rapidly  to  his  feet  and  bid 
the  knocker  enter. 

Who  should  she  be  but  one  of  the  hospital-nurses ;  a 
handsome  woman  despite  her  middle-age  and  the  strong 
lines  on  her  face ;  a  not  unladylike  personage,  though 
clad  with  plain  cap  and  poor  calico  like  a  work-a-day. 

"  Mrs.  Dedley,"  asked  the  doctor,  showing  some  signs 
of  surprise,  a  am  I  wanted  again  in  your  ward  ?" 

"  No,  sir ;  the  patients  are  all  comfortable,"  was  the 
answer,  rather  nervously  given. 

"Perhaps  you  are  ill  yourself?"  hinted  he,  noticing  now 
that  the  usually  set  face  of  the  nurse  was  alternately  flush- 
ing and  paling  under  his  look  of  inquiry. 

"  Not  at  all,  doctor.  I  want  to  speak  with  you  about 
something  outside  of  your  duties  here." 

"  Dear  me  !  Sit  down,  Mrs.  Dedley.  I'll  be  happy  to 
hear  you ;  though  you  know,  of  course,  it's  against  the 
rules." 

"  Dr.  Danforth,"  began  Mrs.  Dedley,  looking  to  the 
ground,  instead  of  at  him,  "  I  wish  to — "  and  she  stopped 
and  suddenly  fell  to  crying. 

"Which  caused  the  doctor  to  stare  so  intensely  at  her 
downcast  cap  and  shoulders  that  the  blue  of  his  spectacles 
fairly  faded  out  under  it. 

"  What  on  earth  is  the  matter,  my  good  woman  ?  Yon 
quite  startle  me." 

"  Yes "  responded  she,  hastily  wiping  her  eyes   and 


TIIE    CHIVALRY    OF    PHYSIC.  103 

forcing  herself  to  sit  erect  again,  "  I  haven't  given  way  so 
before  since — since  I  was  a  patient  here  myself,  and  the 
poor  woman  numbered  next  to  me  died.  Doctor  Dan- 
forth,  I  think  you're  a  gentleman." 

"  Thank  you,  I  try  to  be." 

"  And  a  Christian. — That  is,  you  don't  join  in  the  wild, 
bad  ways  of  some  of  the  other  doctors  here." 

"  Excuse  me,  Mrs.  Dedley,  but  it's  hardly  the  thing  for 
you  to  complain  of  them  to  me,"  rejoined  the  young 
man,  in  considerable  haste.  "  As  a  professional  man,  I 
can't  permit  you  to  speak  in  that  way  of  the  others  before 
me." 

"  But  I  must  complain  of  some  of  them,  doctor,  if  I'm 
to  tell  you  anything." 

"  Then  you'd  better  not  tell  me  anything,  Mrs.  Dedley. 
It  would  be  out  of  all  decency  for  me  to  hear  you." 

"  I  suppose  you're  right,  sir,"  said  the  nurse,  about  to 
rise;  '"and  I  must  try  the  Warden,  if  no  one  else  will 
help  me.     Some  one  must  interfere  at  once." 

"  Wait  a  moment,  madam  !  You're  a  sensible  woman, 
I  know.  Now,  does  your  judgment  tell  you  that  I  am 
the  fittest  person  in  this  building  to  hear  what  you  have 
to  say «" 

"  Yes,  sir,  or  I  should  not  have  come  to  you." 

"  That's  enough,  then.     What  is  the  trouble?" 

Mrs.  Dedley  settled  her  clasped  hands  upon  her  lap, 
and  looked  to  the  floor  again. 

"  You  remember,  sir,  the  poor  young  English  girl  who 
came  in  about  a  month  ago,  with  erysipelas,  and  is  to  go 
out  next  week  ?" 

"  Number  62  ?  The  one  who  says  she  has  no  relatives, 
or  friends  in  this  country,  and  was  sent  here  by  those  with 
whom  she  had  been  living  as  a  servant  ?" 


104  THE   CHIVALRY    OF    PHYSIC. 


"  That's  the  girl." 


"  I  know  whom  you  mean.  She's  pretty,  and,  I  should 
say,  a  good  girl :  but  rather  simple  in  some  things." 

"  Yery  simple.     That's  her  great  danger,  sir." 

"  Danger,  Mrs.  Dedley  ?" 

"  Why,  Doctor,  you  yourself  asked  me,  yesterday,  to 
keep  her  away  from  that  brazen  woman  just  getting  well 
of  Bilious  Remittent." 

"  Of  course  I  did,"  said  the  young  physician,  earnestly. 
"  That  woman  is  not  fit  to  talk  to  any  respectable  girl. 
Too  many  friendless  girls  have  gone  from  the  Hospital 
to  something  worse,  through  being  tempted  in  their  need 
by  just  such  other  patients  as  the  Bilious  Remittent." 

"  More  than  one  have  I  stopped  myself,  sir.  But,  as  I 
was  about  to  say,  this  girl  is  certainly  very  simple,  and  I 
don't  think  she  should  be  let  go  to  the  room  of  Doctor 
Gatley  and  Doctor  Starbuckle  for  medicines.  She  has 
told  me,  herself,  that  they,  and  some  others,  with  them, 
are  very  free  with  her  there,  and  ask  her  to  drink 
brandy." 

Danforth  remained  thoughtfully  silent  during  her 
pause,  and  she  went  on. 

"  I  forbade  her  going,  and  told  her  I  would  get  you  to 
order  her  immediate  discharge  if  she  went  again.  She 
must  have  repeated  what  I  said  to  Doctor  Gatley ;  for 
she  now  says  that  he  has  promised  to  support  her  outside, 
if  I  get  her  sent,  until  she  can  find  a  place.  You  know 
what  that  means,  Doctor  Danforth.  And  Doctor  Gatley 
and  Doctor  Starbuckle,  and  some  others,  are  so  angry 
about  my  interference,  that — that — they're  trying  to 
ruin  Me." 

The  nurse  broke  down,  as  she  said  it,  and  cried  as  one 
would  not  wish  to  see  his  mother  crv. 


THE   CHIVALRY    OF   PHYSIC.  105 

"  To  ruin  You  ?"  asked  the  young  man,  indignantly. 

"  Yes,  sir, — God  help  me !  Two  or  three  of  them 
have  insulted  me  shamefully,  right  in  the  Ward.  And 
O,  sir,  they  are  circulating  stories  about  me  that  would 
disgrace  the  vilest  woman  in  the  world  !  I  don't  know 
what  to  do,  Doctor  Danforth, — what  shall  I  do  ?  They 
swear  I  shall  be  turned  out ;  and  with  a  ruined  charac- 
ter, too.  You  know  that  I  behave  always  as  a  decent 
woman  should.  I  think  you're  a  good  young  man  :  per- 
haps you've  got  a  good  mother :  and  I  hope  you'll  speak 
for  me." 

"Shameful!"  exclaimed  Danforth,  rising  quickly  to 
his  feet  and  beginning  to  pace  the  room.  "  I  see  now. 
They  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  themselves.  I'll  order  the 
girl  out  to-morrow.  Mrs.  Dedley,  I'll  do  all  I  can  for 
you.  There  are  things  going  on  here  all  the  time  that 
would  raise  a  mob  if  they  were  known  outside !  I'll  do 
all  I  can  for  you." 

Thanking  him  and  crying,  both  at  once,  the  nurse  hur- 
ried away  to  cry  still  more ;  and  presently  the  excited 
young  physician  went  down  into  the  Saloon  to  supper. 

"Here  he  is,  now!  Good  for  Danforth !"  were  the 
first  sounds  greeting  him,  as  he  took  his  place  at  a  table- 
full  of  reckless  young  Medici. 

"  Much  obliged  for  your  appreciation,"  said  he ;  not 
exactly  understanding  it,  but  willing  to  be  diverted. 
*     "  Has  she  told  you  that  she  loved  you  V   sang  Star- 
buckle,  from  the  opposite  side. 

"Did  she  kiss  you  for-r-r  your  Mother?"  chanted 
Gatley,  a  long  lank  Southerner,  from  the  head. 

Flushing  crimson,  as  the  laughter  sounded  all  around 
him,  Danforth  laid  his  knife  down. 

"What's  the  joke?    Who?" 
5*  ' 


106  THE   CHIVALRY   OF   PHYSIC. 

"  The  most  appreciative  of  nurses.  Exempli  gratia : 
Mrs.  Dedley,"  laughed  Gatley. 

"  Saw  her  coming  oat  not  five  minutes  ago,"  added 
another  one ;  and  then  the  rest  roared  again. 

The  baited  victim  of  this  extremelv  facetious  atten- 
tion  might  have  secured  an  everlasting  reputation  for 
himself  by  even  such  a  non-committal  demonstration  as 
a  wink ;  but  he  preferred  to  become  angry  and  set  up 
for  a  saint. 

"  A  joke  is  a  joke,"  said  he,  loudly  and  belligerently  ; 
"  but  now  you  are  forgetting  your  manhood,  all  of  you ! 
Mrs.  Dedley  came  to  me  for — on  business." 

"  Oh,  Ah,"  "  Here's  a  Joseph  for  you,"  and  "  Call  us 
in  next  time !"  were  his  replies. 

"  I'd  call  the  whole  of  you  out"  retorted  Danforth, 
striking  the  table  furiously  with  his  fist,  "if  men  who 
can  turn  blackguards  against  a  poor,  defenceless  woman 
were  worth  powder  and  ball!" — And  then,  still  more  ex- 
asperated by  their  tumultuous  jeers, — "  You  all  know  as 
well  as  I  do — all  of  you — that  Mrs.  Dedley  is  an  honest, 
good  woman  ;  and  you  may  as  well  know,  too,  that  I  see 
right  through  the  whole  plot  against  her : — I  know  just 
what  started  it : — and  I'm  bound  to  spoil  it  for  you  !" 
(Wrought  to  positive  fury  by  their  hisses  and  a  shower  of 
bread-crumbs — ) — "  Every  man  of  you  engaged  in  it  ought 
to  be  turned  out  of  this  Hospital  in  disgrace.  You  want 
to  ruin  a  decent  woman,  because  she  has  acted  like  a 
good  mother  in  saving  a  silly  wench  from  your  wicked 
trifling;  and  I'll  stand  by  her  for  it,  if  it's  against  the 
Whole  of  you  !" 

"  See  here,  Dory  Danforth,"  bawled  Gatley,  savagely, 
amid  a  tempest  of  hisses.  "You'd  better  mind  your 
own  business !" 


AN   APPEAL    UNTO   CJESAK.  107 

"  I  intend  to  make  this  my  business — and  you,  too-!" 
"  Do    you  mean  to  say  that  you'll  interfere  ?"  asked 
another,  as  angrily. 

"  I  mean  to  say  that  I'll  do  as  I've  said." 
"  Then,"  cried  Starbuckle,  quickly,  "  Be  it  Resolved, 
that  Doctor  Theodore  Danforth  be,  and  is  hereby,  ban- 
ished to  Coventry  indefinitely.      Those  in  favor  of  the 

motion  will. say " 

"  Aye  !"  shouted  every  voice  ;  not  one  secret  dissenter 
having  the  courage  to  resist  the  clique. 

And,  feeling  no  further  appetite,  Doctor  Theodore 
Danforth  started  spiritedly  at  once  on  the  road  to  his 
appointed  place  of  exile,  making  his  room  up-stairs  the 
first  way-station. 


XIII. 

AN   APPEAL   UNTO   OESAR. 

COLLEGE,  the  Army,  the  Navy,  and  the  Hospital, 
all  offer  such  facilities  for  prompt  transportation  to 
Coventry  when  a  candidate  can  show  the  smallest  proof 
of  a  manliness  above  the  pettiest  moral  cowardice,  that 
a  hasty  thinker  might  be  supposed  to  wonder  why  so 
few  of  our  indomitable  students,  lieutenants,  midship- 
men, and  incipient  physicians,  have  ever  deliberately 
braced  themselves  for  the  trip.  The  inference  that 
nearly  every  one  of  these  young  gentlemen,  generally  so 
entirely  without  fear  in  female  society,  must  have  been 


108  AN   APPEAL   UNTO   C.ESAE. 

in  too  abject  terror  of  the  disfavor  of  the  mere  mob  ele- 
ment of  their  comraderie  to  ever  oppose  that  element's 
average  degrading  tyranny,  is  too  humiliating  to  all 
manly  pretence  for  a  moment's  toleration.  He  whose 
sterling  independence  and  purity  of  nature  would,  other- 
wise, often  make  him  a  defiant  candidate  for  Coventry, 
is  frequently  turned  craven,  at  the  last  moment,  by 
discovering  that  some  treasured  bosom  friend,  of  whose 
private  sympathy  he  has  all  along  felt  sure,  dares  not 
refrain  from  seeming  to  acquiesce  in  his  banishment. 
The  stout  heart  that  could  dauntlessly  defy  twice  the 
array  of  its  enemies  with  pointed  swords,  quails  like  a 
woman's  at  sight  of  one  friend  with  unextended  hand. 
There  is  a  subtle  contagion  in  the  cowardice  of  such 
treason ;  the  betrayed  wavers,  pauses,  doubts  his  own 
cause,  and — is  lost  to  the  nobler  manhood. 

As  Doctor  Danforth  accepted  his  martyrdom  without 
chance  for  forethought,  and  in  the  heat  of  sudden  pas- 
sion, he  did  not  realize,  until  too  late,  the  one  fact  which 
might  have  made  him  less  heroic.  Amongst  those  at  the 
table  who  had  neither  jeered  nor  hissed,  but  who  had  not 
dared  to  dissent  from  the  thundering  "Aye!"  was  the 
House-Physician,  Doctor  Kirke,  a  man  of  fine  gifts  and 
some  character,  who  had  ever  been  the  warmest  sympa- 
thizer and  friend  of  the  now  unpopular  champion  of 
woman. 

As  the  latter  reflected  upon  this  in  his  own  room,  on 
the  night  of  the  vote,  he  became  less  and  less  rampant, 
and  finally  repaired  to  Dr.  Kirke's  apartment  for  the 
purpose  of  setting  finally  at  rest  the  painful  doubt  in 
his  mind. 

"  Doctor  Kirke,"  he  said  briskly  entering,  and  con- 
fronting that  gentleman  at  his  desk,  u  I  wish  to  know  if 


AJST   APPEAL   UNTO   OESAR.  109 

you  side  with  the  men  who  have  insulted  me  this  even- 
ing?    If  you  do  not,  give  me  your  hand." 

"  I'm  sorry  to  say,  Danforth,  that  I  could  not  approve 
your  tone  and  language,"  was  the  cold  reply. 

"  But  hadn't  I  just  cause  for  them  ?  Didn't  they  insult 
me  with  their  gross  ribaldry,  and  speak  infamously  of  a 
woman  ?" 

"  I  think  it  would  have  been  wiser  in  you  to  take  the 
badinage  as  mere  nonsense.  Such  men  will  be  a  little 
coarse  in  their  jests  sometimes.  At  any  rate,  you  were 
not  responsible  for  what  they  said." 

"  Every  man  who  is  a  Man,  is  responsible  for  the  honor 
of  any  woman  not  known  by  himself  to  be  impure, 
whose  purity  may  be  questioned  in  his  presence." 

"  That,  sir,  will  do  for  sentiment,  not  practice.  I 
can't  approve  your  headstrong  course  in  the  matter, 
though  I  do  not  doubt  that  you  are  honest  enough  in  it." 

"  In  other  words,  Doctor  Kirke,  you  go  with  the 
enemy." 

"  In  other  words,  Danforth,  I  think  you  have  meddled 
officiously,  where  it  would  have  been  wiser  to  keep  still. 
I  am  informed  that  the  person  you  chose  to  champion  so 
violently,  is  recognized,  by  another  person  in  the  build- 
ing as  a  woman  of  bad  antecedents.  I  prefer  to  say  no 
more  on  the  subject." 

"  And  cut  me  P 

"  You  have  to  follow  me  on  my  Morning  round,  and  I 
can  not  well  avoid  answering  such  professional  questions 
as  you  may  see  fit  to  ask.  Beyond  that  our  future  inter- 
course must  be  limited." 

Alas !  for  the  heroism  of  men  not  born  to  be  heroes, 
Danforth  went  back  to  the  chair  before  the  fire  in  his 
own  apartment  again,  and — cried.     jSTot  only  weakened 


110  AN  APPEAL  UNTO  CESAR. 

to  that  extent,  but  also  began  questioning  in  his  own 
mind  whether  Mrs.  Dedley  had  not  artfully  imposed  upon 
his  chivalrous  impulses  a  false  story ;  whether  she  had 
not  been  attracted  by  his  verdancy,  rather  than  his 
justice  ?  Assuredly  there  were  signs  in  her  face  of  past 
tempests,  if  not  of  present  evil  temper ;  even  though  he, 
himself,  had  never  noted  a  word  or  act  of  hers  that  was 
not  womanly  and — for  one  in  her  position — positively 
refined.  In  short,  he  Doubted  his  course,  and  was  not 
the  man  for  Coventry. 

Next  day  his  professional  comrades  not  only  cut  him 
dead,  but  were  consistent  enough  to  fill  the  air  with 
rumors  giving  sinister  explanation  of  his  prejudice  for 
Mrs.  Dedley.  He  bore  this  impatiently,  especially  after 
his  round  with  the  congealed  House-Physician,  and  re- 
solved to  be  malignantly  suspicious  with  the  nurse.  But 
after  the  latter  had  seen  the  dangerously  simple  "  Num- 
ber 62"  safely  out  of  the  building,  under  care  of  one  of 
the  kitchen-servants  who  had  been  paid  to  get  her  a  tem- 
porary home  at  a  sister's ;  and  after  she  had  held  one 
more  conversation  with  him  over  a  sleeping  patient ;  he 
became  abruptly  heroic  again,  and  was  the  man  for 
Coventry. 

Now  we  come  to  a  very  shy  fact,  viz :  that  Coventry 
is  very  often  a  very  uncomfortable  colony  for  the  Mother- 
Country,  as  well  as  for  the  Colonist ;  being  much  like 
some  minute  magnetic  piece  of  the  mechanism  of  a 
watch,  contemptuously  removed  to  some  distance  from 
the  remainder  of  the  works ;  without  which  the  latter 
should  act  but  stiffly  at  any  time,  and  variably  magnet- 
ized by  which  they  should  hitch  and  hitch  almost  to  a 
full  stop.  In  two  or  three  days'  time,  Danforth's  simul- 
taneous presence  to  the  eyes  and  absence  from  the  recog- 


AN   ArPEAL   UNTO   CLESAK.  Ill 

nition  of  his  former  associates ;  aggravated  also  by  their 
necessity  for  likewise  confusing  the  personal  entity  of 
the  principal  female  nurse,  caused  such  hitching  and  halt- 
ing demoralization  in  the  professional  mechanism  of  the 
Hospital,  that  something  pretty  decisive  had,  evidently, 
to  be  done.  Theodore  Danforth  did  it.  He  addressed  a 
terse  note  to  the  Governors  of  the  Institution,  showing 
how  the  interests  of  the  latter  were  being  ignored  by  his 
enforced  discordance  with  the  general  harmony,  and  de- 
manding an  official  investigation. 

This  brought  promptly  to  the  spot  one  of  said  Govern- 
ors, a  fine  old  retired  merchant,  who  occupied  (with  in- 
voluntary poetic  justice)  the  dining-saloon  as  his  court 
room,  and  thither  summoned  the  Championed  and  the 
Champion  first. 

"  You  may  remember,  sir,"  said  Mrs.  Dedley  to  the 
Governor,  after  she  and  Danforth  had  finished  their 
statements,  "  that  you,  yourself,  appointed  me  nurse 
here.  I  came  in,  a  poor,  friendless  patient,  with  a  frac- 
tured skull  it  was  thought,  and  you  happened  to  be  here 
on  that  day  of  my  convalescence  when  I  cried  at  the 
death  of  a  poor  woman  who  occupied  a  bed  next  to 
mine :  Number  44 :  wife  of  a  poor  toy-maker,  it  was 
said.  You  asked  me  why  I  took  it  so  hard,  and  I  told 
you  that  we  had  become  friends  in  our  trouble,  and  that 
she  had  left  me  about  all  she  had  in  the  world — her  watch. 
Poor  Mrs.  Dapple  !" 

"  Certainly  I  remember  it,"  returned  the  Governor, 
kindly.  u  You  also  told  me  that  you  were  destitute  and 
without  friends,  and  begged  an  appointment  here  as 
nurse.  It  is  not  customary  for  us  to  take  nurses  with- 
out recommendations ;  but  I  let  your  face  pass  for  that 
— and  I'll  trust  it  yet ! — and  appointed  you.  Now  let  us 
hear  what  vour  accusers  have  to  sav." 


112  AS   APPEAL   UNTO   C.ESAB. 

Then  were  ushered  into  court  Gatley,  Starbuckle  and 
Company,  who,  instead  of  being  abashed,  boldly  reiterat- 
ed their  slanders  against  the  nurse,  and  declared  they 
had  a  witness  who  could  swear  to  having  seen  the  princi- 
pal aggressor  once  in  an  evil  place. 

This  witness,  a  servant  from  the  kitchen,  who  had  not 
been  there  more  than  a  week,  no  sooner  caught  the  full 
benefit  of  the  accused  woman's  indignant  face,  than 
she  uttered  an  exclamation  of  fright  and  attempted 
to  run  from  the  room.  Being  intercepted,  however, 
and  interrogated  by  the  Governor,  she  told  a  lame 
story. 

"Plaze,  your  honor,"  said  she,  in  a  flurry,  "  the  pairson 
fornint  me  is  not  at  all  the  wan  I  was  thinkin'  her : 
though  it  was  Mrs.  Dedley  she  was  that  I  saw  in  the 
house  where  I  wint  to  fetch  my  poor,  wake-hearted  hus- 
band— rest  his  sowl ! — and  I  was  towld  that  she  came  to 
the  Hospital  afther  it  wid  the  fay  ver  on  her.  They  towld 
me  in  the  kitchen  it  was  Mrs.  Dedley  as  was  head-nurse 
upshtairs,  an'  had  come  here  a  patient,  an'  thin  I  towld 
them  about  it.  But  this  is  not  the  wan  at  all, — now  I 
see  her  plain.  Sure,  your  Honor,  but  the  docthors  here 
have  been  decayvin'  both  av  us." 

"Doctor  Kirke,"  said  the  Governor,  "probably  you 
can  tell  us,  without  reference  to  the  books,  whether  other 
persons,  than  this^lady,  of  the  name  of  Dedley,  have  been 
treated  here  ?" 

"  Yes,  sir,  several  in  my  time." 

"  Very  well,  sir.     Now  for  the  next  witness." 

There  was  none. 

"  No  other  ?"  ejaculated  the  old  dignitary.  "  Am  I  to 
understand,  then,  that  a  majority  of  the  professional  men 
in  this  Hospital  have  deliberately  schemed  to  ruin  two 


AN    APPEAL    UNTO    C.ESAP.  113 

reputable  persons :  one  of  them  a  woman,  the  other  a 
brother-student :  upon  such  testimony  as  this  ?" 

Messieurs  Gatley,  Starbuckle  and  Company  took  a  pro- 
found interest  in  the  floor  of  the  court  room,  and  Dr. 
Kirke  turned  infantinely  red,  even  to  the  prematurely 
bald  spot  on  his  scholastic  cranium. 

u  Then  I  tell  you  what  it  is,  gentlemen,"  thundered 
the  incensed  Governor,  u  I  should  serve  you  right  if  I 
laid  this  whole  case,  just  as  I  have  found  it,  before  the 
Board,  and  had  the  whole  raft  of  you  cleared  out  in  dis- 
grace !  Save  that  it  would  utterly  ruin  you  profession- 
ally, I  should  do  it  without  hesitation.  I  am  amazed,  I 
am  scandalized,  to  find  young  men  who  should  be  gentle- 
men by  their  memberships  in  an  honorable  profession, 
descending  to  such  business  as  this !  As  it  is,  there  shall 
be  a  thorough  reform,  I  promise  you.  Mrs.  Dedley,  every 
man  here  who  has  taken  part  in  this  unmanly  outrage 
shall  apologize  to  you,  if  he  wishes  to  remain  in  this  Hos- 
pital, and  I  am  only  sorry  that  it  is  not  in  my  power  to 
offer  you  a  situation  beyond  the  reach  of  such  persons 
altogether.  Mr.  Danforth,  I  entirely  approve  the  course 
you  have  pursued,  and  hereby  thank  you  for  it  in  behalf 
of  the  Board." 

"  Thank  you,  Governor,"  returned  Danforth,  modestly. 
u  But  I  think  it  right  to  confess  that  I  may  have  been 
too  violent  in  my  language  to  these  gentlemen  at  the  out- 
set ;  in  that  way  provoking  them  to  say  and  do  more 
than  they  really  meant.  With  your  permission,  I  shall 
ask  Mrs.  Dedley  to  resign  here,  after  these  gentlemen 
have  apologized  to  her,  (which  they  will  readily  do  now, 
I  am  quite  sure),  and  accept  a  situation  in  my  own  home 
as  nurse  to  an  invalid  Stepfather.  For  myself,  1  want 
no  apology.     So  far  as  the  difference  has  been  merely 


114  IN   TWO   ROOMS. 

between  the  others  and  myself,  I  have,  perhaps,  sinned  as 
much  as  they.  I  shall  remain  here,  and  hope  we  shall  at 
once  become  good  friends  again." 

"  Danforth,"  exclaimed  Dr.  Kirke,  promptly  advanc- 
ing, with  extended  hand,  "  I  sincerely  beg  your  pardon, 
and  also  that  of  Mrs.  Dedley.  I  shall  never  forgive  My- 
self." 

Whereupon  Messieurs  Gatley,  Starbuckle  and  Com- 
pany also  fell  an  easy  prey  to  magnanimity,  and  apolo- 
gized and  shook  hands  in  a  manner  doing  unspeakable 
credit  to  their  powers  of  forgiveness. 

The  affair  had  been  worth  while,  if  only  to  illustrate 
the  ready  disposition  of  spirited  young  men  to  overlook 
the  past  resistance  of  those  whom  they  have  assailed,  and 
to  secure  for  Mrs.  Aster  the  Second  an  admirable  assist- 
ant in  the  care  of  her  sick  husband.* 


XIV. 

IN     TWO     BOOMS. 

SOCIETY  contains  many  Lardners,  all  of  whom  are 
equally  repulsive  to  the  penetrating  mind  of  Byron 
Cox,  Esq.,  but  it  did  seem  as  though  he  of  Lardner  Place 
could  never  be  sufficiently  deluded  by  egregious  conceit, 
as  to  his  capacity  for  other  matters  than  Hides.  Had 
he  ever  written  A  Book?     Come  now!     Had  he  ever 

*  The  Author  would  call  attention  to  the  fact,  that  the  above 
sketch  of  professional  life  in  a  Hospital  is  true  to  nature,  to  the  best 
of  his  ability. 


LN~    TWO    ROOMS.  115 

studied  all  mankind  from  a  third-story  back,  and  there- 
by fitted  himself  to  make  pretensions  as  an  artist  in  hu- 
man nature  \  That's  what  we  want  to  know  !  Yet  this 
infatuated  oracle  of  the  u  Swamp  "  could  never  see  that 
his  digressions  from  hi*  own  legitimate  plebeian  trade  were 
simple  impertinences,  and  went  on  perpetrating  them 
with  as  much  besotted  assurance  as  though  he  could 
"Write  Stories  of  The  Passions.  The  last  unhappy  ego- 
tism of  this  fatally  digressive  man.  was  his  determination 
to  seek  a  reconciliation  with  his  half-brother,  and  plead 
the  cause  of  that  invalid's  discarded  flesh  and  blood  :  and 
on  a  cheerful  afternoon  in  November  he  sent  up  his  card 
(which  artfully  but  uselessly  failed  to  mention  Hides  in 
Jenkins  Place. 

Airs.  Aster  having  been  called  into  the  next  room  to 
receive  a  caller,  the  nurse  was  Air.  Aster's  sole  company 
at  the  time,  and  handed  him  the  card  with  an  absence  of 
reflection  which  it  might  not  have  encouraged  in  the 
wife.     The  sick  man  took  it  listlessly,  read  the  name  with 

to      s 

sudden  agitation,  hesitated  a  moment,  with  eyes  wander- 
ing, as  though  half  inclined  to  call  somebody,  and  finally 
asked  that  the  gentleman  should  be  shown  up.  There- 
upon, Air.  Lardner  was  conducted  thither,  and  introduced 
himself  with  a  felicity  of  manner  and  tone  which  had  at 
least  passed  for  happy  tact  in  a  man  whose  Intellectual 
right  to  exercise  that  quality  had  been  less  questionable. 

;*  My  dear  Philip,  how  are  you  feeling  to-day  (  I  was 
in  hopes  you  might  feel  strong  enough  for  a  short  drive 
with  me.  and  so  brought  my  carriage.'' 

"  Better  to-day,  Reginald  ;  but.  the  outside  air  is  too 
chilly  for  me.     Sit  down.v 

Thus  thev  met  after  vears  of  alienation  :  the  well  man 

W  90  s 

purposely  ignoring  for  the  moment  all  apparent  remem- 


116  IN    TWO   PwOOMS. 

brance  of  their  past  differences,  and  the  sick  one  involun- 
tarily yielding  to  the  fiction. 

"  I'll  sit  down,  of  course,  and  hope  your  nurse  is  not 
retiring  from  the  room  on  my  account.  For  that  matter, 
though,  I  can  wait  upon  you  myself,  while  I  am  here. 
Your  wife  is  well,  I  trust  ?" 

A  nod,  and  a  pressure  of  the  hand  which  the  recumbent 
sufferer  still  held  in  his  own. 

"All  well  but  you,  then.  Baby  and  all?  You're  a 
young  fellow,  Phil,  to  have  infantry  at  your  command ! 
I  can't  make  myself  believe  that  you  are  really  so  sick  as 
the  doctors  are  trying  to  make  you  pay  them  for." 

"I'm  a  sick  man,  Brother,"  answered  the  invalid, 
solemnly ;  "  sick  in  body  and  sick  at  heart." 

u  Only  a  sick  man's  fancies,  I  hope." 

"  No,  Reginald  :  something  more  than  that.  I  shall 
never  arise  from  this  bed,  and  two  of  my  three  children 
have  left  me  and  become  vagabonds." 

"  There  you're  too  harsh,  Philip,"  waS  Mr.  Lardner's 
earnest  comment.  "  By  this  time  you  should  be  able  to 
make  allowances  for  the  boys.  They  will  never  be  vaga- 
bonds, I  am  sure :  and  it  seems  to  me  it  would  be  worth 
your  while  to  find  them  out  and  give  them  at  least  a  last 
chance  to  return  to  duty.  This  division  in  one's  family 
must  be  enough  of  itself  to  sicken  one." 

Mr.  Aster  gazed  anxiously  up  into  the  speaker's  face, 
and  slowly  asked  :  "  Do  you  know  anything  of  them — my 
boys — brother  ?  You  and  I  were  not — not  friendly  when 
they  left  me." 

"  Yes,  I  do  know  something  of  them — of  John,  at 
least.  He  came  by  accident  into  my  counting-house, 
looking  for  a  clerkship,  just  after  leaving  you  in  Phila- 
delphia.    His  likeness  to  his  mother  struck  me  at  once 


IN   TWO   KOOMS.  117 

when  I  saw  him,  and  I  made  him  tell  his  story,  told  him 
who  I  was,  and  took  him  home  with  me.  He  might 
have  staid  there ;  but  was  too  proud  to  be  '  dependent,' 
as  he  called  it,  and  suddenly  went  off  to  the  war.  Now 
he's  in  New  York  again,  however,  and  has  been  to  see  us 
twice  within  a  month." 

"And  has  asked  you  to  intercede  for  him?"  queried 
the  father,  wistfully,  even  eagerly. 

"  Wel-1,  no-o,"  returned  Mr.  Lardner,  hesitatingly,  and 
in  some  perplexity,  "  he  has  not  yet  done  so.  To  be 
plain  with  you,  Philip,  the  young  fellow  is  the  proudest, 
most  sensitive  creature  I  ever  saw.  He  has  just  the  kind 
of  pride  which  you  had  in  our  younger  days,  and  which 
made  me — well,  we  were  foolish  enough  to  quarrel  in  it, 
you  know.  He  is  so  touchy  about  the  least  reference  to 
anything  past,  that,  upon  my  word,  I  scarcely  dare  talk 
to  him  about  anything!     No  vagabond,  that.'' 

"  Reginald,"  began  the  invalid,  with  quivering  voice, 
"  you  don't  know  how  those  boys  have  broken  my  heart. 
They  turned  against  me  because  I  chose  to  marry  again, 
and  left  me  as  though  I  had  done  them  some  wrong. 
One  day  John  went,  without  a  word  of  warning;  on  the 
next  Philip  followed ;  and  I  discovered,  after  their  de- 
parture, that  one  of  them  had  forced  open  my  safe,  and 
carried  away  a  Will  which  I  had  made.  I  employed  a 
New  York  detective  to  trace  them  and  tell  me  of  their 
doings.  I  believed  they  would  soon  repent  of  their  folly, 
and  wished  them  to  be  kept  within  reach  of  my  assured 
forgiveness.  Neither  was  traced  until  a  short  time  ago — 
since  we  have  been  in  New  York — when  the  detective 
brought  us  word  that  John  had  evaded  conviction  for 
theft  only  by  escaping  from  the  court-room !" 

"Theft?" 


118  IN   TWO   ROOMS. 

"Yes,  brother,  Theft!  And  but  the  other  day  he 
came  blustering  to  this  very  bedside,  bringing  back  Our 
Baby — think  of  it ! — whom  he  had  got  some  ruffian-accom- 
plice to  snatch  from  the  girl  in  the  street  for  an  excuse ; 
and  here,  in  my  presence,  not  only  showed  no  shame  for 
his  conduct,  but  charged  Mrs.  Aster  with  all  Ins  wicked 
folly !  I  turned  my  back  upon  him,  Reginald,  'and 
want  to  see  him  never  again." 

"And  the  other  boy,— Philip?" 

"  We  have  never  heard  from  him.  I  could  almost  pray 
that  he  might  be  dead."  And  the  sick  father  covered  his 
eyes  with  a  hand,  and  drew  a  long,  catching  breath. 

Very  grave  became  Mr.  Lardner's  expression  of  coun- 
tenance during  the  sad  recital  of  filial  offense,  and  for  two 
or  three  minutes  thereafter  he  remained  moodily  silent. 
Then  a  new  expression  suddenly  animated  his  whole  bear- 
ing, and  he  leaned  closely  over  his  half-brother,  with  arms 
crossed  on  the  bed.  "  The  reconciliation  between  you 
and  me  is  perfect — is  it  not,  Philip  ?" 

"  Yes,  Reginald ;  I  was  wrong  in  our  quarrel." 

"  More  likely  we  were  both  too  hasty.  We  were  sons  of 
the  same  mother,  and  should  never  have  forgotten  that 
fact.  Let  us  both  atone,  Philip;  I,  by  seeking  still  to 
invoke  your  mercy  for  your  own  sons ;  and  you,  by  heed- 
ing me.  If  I  am  any  judge  of  character,  your  son  John 
is  as  capable  of  flying  as  of  stealing.  Any  other  crime 
than  that  dirty  one  for  him  !  I  will  pledge  my  life  that 
there  is  some  mistake.  Why,  he  came  to  me,  the  second 
time,  as  a  stranger,  because  his  necessity  for  becoming  a 
— a  Drayman  made  him  too  proud  to  claim  the  acquaint- 
ance even  of  relatives  ;  and  almost  abused  me  into  taking 
pay  for  some  petty  scratches  given  to  my  carriage  by  his 
dray  in  the  street.     That's  not  like  a  thief.     There  has 


IN   TWO  ROOMS.  119 

certainly  been  some  hocus-pocus,  some  sinister  influence, 
to  get  up  such  a  story." 

"  Sinister  influence  I"  repeated  the  invalid,  with  a  sud- 
den coldness  of  tone,  and  drawing  back  in  the  bed. 

"JNow  don't  misconstrue  me,  Philip,"  added  the  other, 
hastily.  "I  am  only  trying  to  help  you  to  the  same 
charity  towards  your  sons  that  you  would,  as  a  just  man, 
yield  to  strangers.  You  must  know  whether  any  one 
speaks  habitually  in  their  disfavor  to  you  ?" 

"  ~No  one  has  ever  done  so.     My  wife — " 

"  For  courtesy's  sake,  Brother,  let  us  leave  the  ladies 
out  of  our  talk  for  the  present.  Keep  the  matter  between 
us  two,  and  give  me  permission  to  institute  private  in- 
quiries. We  can  sift  this  business  without  help  from  the 
ladies." 

And  while  thus  the  incorrigible  Lardner  meddled  mad- 
ly in  the  affairs  of  another  man's  family,  there  was  in  the 
very  next  room  a  lady,  who,  had  she  known  who  he  was, 
and  why  he  had  come,  might  have  devised  some  early 
means  of  letting  him  know  that  he  could  more  intelli- 
gently occupy  his  time  in  attending  to  his  own,  and  only 
appropriate,  business. 

In  fact,  the  second  Mrs.  Aster,  believing  her  husband 
to  be  safely  under  the  guard  of  Mrs.  Dedley,  was  doing 
the  honors  of  the  next  room  for  quite  another  gentleman. 

"  Mr.  Stalker,"  she  was  saying,  in  a  voice  not  much 
above  a  whisper,  "  your  extortions  are  out  of  all  reason, 
and  I  shall  not  submit  to  them  after  this.  I've  paid  you 
hundreds  already;  my  husband  paid  you  heavily  when 
you  brought  him  news  of  that  watch  affair,  and  now  you 
are  talking  about  another  Fifty.  I'll  not  be  robbed  in 
this  way." 

"Whereat  the  foxy  eyes  of  the  detective,  who  sat  facing 


120  m  TWO  ROOMS. 

her,  and  almost  touching   her  knees  with  his,  sparkled 
with  wounded  sensibility. 

"  I'm  no  more  an  extortioner,  nor  a  robber,  than  my 
neighbors,  Mrs.  Aster,"  said  he,  also  in  a  low  voice,  but  still 
quite  sharply.  "  When  it  comes  to  catching  a  man  steal- 
ing a  wratch  from  another  person,  and  letting  that  man 
off  on  condition  of  his  slipping  the  ticker  into  a  third- 
party's  pocket,  the  job  belongs  to  Class  I.,  and  is  worth 
something  more  than  I'd  have  asked  to  arrest  the  first 
man." 

"Will  twenty-five  dollars  more,  satisfy  you?" 

"  I  must  have  the  Fifty.  Here  have  I  been  keeping 
the  young  fellow  under  my  eye  ever  since,  to  have  him  up 
again  when  you  say  the  word.  Here  have  I  been  over- 
hauling him  in  the  street  after  that  break  of  his  from  cus- 
tody, and  hinting  to  him,  as  a  private  friend,  that  he'd 
better  wear  bone  eyeglasses  to  help  his  disguise,  because 
I've  seen  such  things  change  another  man's  phiz  wonder- 
fully many  a  time." 

"  If  you  keep  him  so  closely  under  your  eye,  how  did  it 
happen  that  he  came  here  that  morning?"  asked  the 
lady,  sneeringly. 

"  By  gracious !"  exclaimed  the  detective,  smiting  his 
knee,  "  I  can't  understand,  yet,  how  he  managed  to  do 
that." 

"  Yery  well,  Mr.  Stalker,  you  need  not  trouble  your- 
self about  him,  or  us,  any  more." 

"Ma'am  ?" — In  blank  amazement. 

"  I  shall  not  attempt  to  make  any  pretence  with  you, 
sir.  My  purpose  in  engaging  your  services  is  virtually 
attained,  now.  More  certainly,  perhaps,  through  that 
fellow's  very  visit  here  than  by  what  you  have  done. 
You've  been  far  overpaid  already,  and  now  you  may  take 


IK   TWO    EOOMS.  121 

Twenty-five  dollars,  or  nothing.    Just  which  you  choose." 

"  Do  you  mean  to  say  you've  shut  down  on  me  ?"  asked 
Mr.  Stalker,  perfectly  incredulous  still. 

"  I  don't  understand  such  expressions." 

"  Am  I  to  take  half  pay,  and  go  about  my  business  ?" 

'*  Define  it  in  that  way  if  you  please." 

"  Then,  my  good  lady,  I'll  have  a  cool  Two  Hundred 
from  you  before  we  part,  or  know  the  reason  why !" 

He  had  at  once  thrown  off  all  appearance  of  deference, 
and  stared  at  her  with  insolent  effrontery. 

"  I  have  expected  as  much  from  you,"  answered  the 
Stepmother,  quite  undisturbed,  though  unmistakably  con- 
temptuous, "  and  am  not  at  all  intimidated.  Behave 
yourself,  or  I'll  ring  for  a  servant  who  shall  call  a  police- 
man." 

Cool  as  the  man  was,  by  every  necessity  of  his  calling, 
the  handsome  woman's  matchless  audacitv  made  him 
start  and  gape. 

"  Am  I  the  woman,"  she  went  on,  in  the  same  voice 
and  manner,  "  to  have  permitted  myself  to  fall  into  your 
power,  merely  because  I  chose  to  hire  you  as  a  liar  and  a 
spy  %  Am  I  a  woman  to  be  blackmailed  by  such  as  You  ? 
No,  sir.  I  am  not  in  your  power,  and  will  never  pay 
you  one  more  cent  than  I  have  just  offered.  Go  into 
my  sick  husband's  room  here,  if  you  wish,  and  tell  him 
that  I  bought  you  out  of  his  very  hands  to  turn  and  de- 
ceive him.  Do  you  think  he'd  believe  you  against  Me, 
when  your  very  story  had  proved  you  a  scamp  ?  Be 
sensible,  and  take  what  I  offer,  and  go." 

tt  You're  a  bold  woman." 

"  I'm  not  a  silly  one.     Here  is  your  last  bribe  from 


me." 


"You're  so  bold,  ma'am,"   whispered  the  detective, 
6 


122  IN   TWO   ROOMS. 

leaning  toward  her  and  smiling  sardonically,  "  that  it 
seems  a  pity  to  scare  yon  after  all.  You're  smart,  but 
I'm  smarter — Mrs.  Adelaide  Danforth,  of  the  City  and 
County  of  New  York." 

"  What  ?"  she  exclaimed,  in  a  cry  like  one  shot. 

"  I've  been  keeping  back  my  best  trump,  ma'am,"  he 
said,  with  a  threatening  laugh,  "  and  now  I'll  euchre 
you.  If  I  go  into  your  husband's  room,  I'll  tell  him  a 
story  better  worth  hearing  than  the  one  about  the  watch. 
He  shall  hear  that  I,  John  Stalker,  was  once  employed 
by  one  Danforth,  of  the  City  and  County  of  New  York, 
to  follow  up  a  certain  wife  of  his,  who  had  availed  herself 
of  his  temporary  absence  to  run  off,  carrying  every  bit 
of  furniture  and  property  he  had  left  in  the  house.  I 
had  a  warrant  to  get  the  goods  and  let  the  wife  go,  be- 
cause  " 

"  He  is  dead  !"  gasped  Mrs.  Aster,  white  as  death. 

"  I  can't  gainsay  that.  He  was  in  a  fair  way  to  drink 
himself  dead  then.  But  if  I  told  the  old  gent  in  the 
next  room  that  he'd  married  the  runaway  wife  of  a 
drunken  New  Yorker,  and  could  prove  it  by  the  warrant 
on  file;  and  should  add  that  to  a  neat  putting  of  the 
other  story ;  you  might  be  damaged  more  than  two  hun- 
dred dollars'  worth." 

"  Tell  him !"  cried  the  indomitable  woman,  suddenly 
rising  from  her  chair  and  pointing  toward  the  sick  room ; 
her  face  rigid  and  colorless,  but  her  whole  bearing  defiant 
with  resolute  and  desperate  audacity.  "  My  word  against 
Your's  yet,  with  him  and  all  the  world — you  pitiful 
thief-catcher !" 

Stalker,  too,  arose  to  his  feet,  at  this  second  start- 
ling defiance,  and  looked  at  her  with  surprised 
chagrin. 


DEMORALIZATION    OF    JACK   ASTER.  123 

"  By  George !  What  a  man  a  son  of  yours  ought  to 
be  !"  he  muttered,  involuntarily. 

To  the  man's  overwhelming  astonishment,  he  had  no 
sooner  uttered  this  fairly  extorted  note  of  accepted  defeat, 
than  it  won  for  him  the  victory. 

"  My  son  !  Theodore  !"  ejaculated  she,  her  arm  drop- 
ping as  at  the  touch  of  death,  and  her  lips  twitching  with 
the  words.  "  Theodore  !  Man,  I  am  in  your  power.  .  . 
Take  this  money — all  I  have — and  be  gone." 

She  had  thrown  him  a  goodly  roll  of  notes  from  a  desk 
near  her  hand ;  and,  as  the  bewildered  victor  passed 
through  the  doorwav,  he  noticed  that  she  sank  to  the 
floor  like  a  girl  in  her  first  sorrow. 


xv. 

GREAT   DEMORALIZATION    OF   JACK   ASTER,    DRAYMAN. 

THE  buckskin  horse  driven  to  harness  by  the  dis- 
carded son  of  opulent  parentage  was  quite  a  char- 
acter, and  presented  so  many  unexpected  knobs  of  bone 
around  the  hips,  and  ingenious  bandages  of  ancient  red 
flannel  about  the  feet,  that  nearly  every  competent  critic 
in  the  Draymen's  Protective  Union  suspected  him  of  be- 
ing a  superior  trotter.  Appalling  homeliness,  surprising 
knobs,  and  chronic  addiction  to  rheumatic-looking  ban- 
dages, are  certainly  among  the  strong  points  of  your 
celebrated  fast  animals  to  a  really  amazing  extent,  and, 
by  virtue   of  these  enviable   gifts,  the  buckskin   horse 


124  DEMORALIZATION    OF   JACK   ASTER. 

might  have  caused  a  Yanderbilt,  or  a  Bonner,  to  grow 
faint  with  admiring  ecstacy ;  but  if  the  circling  Course 
was  the  true  province  of  this  valuable  creature's  neglected 
genius,  he  was  much  too  far  above  being  entirely  satis- 
factory in  any  other  province  to  slavishly  humor  the 
dreamy  abstractions  of  sueli  a  driver  as  Mr.  Aster ;  and 
as  a  consequence,  his  public  progress  before  a  dray  was 
but  a  harrowing  series  of  such  affidavit-like  collisions,  as 
were  invariably  sworn-to  on  the  spot.  A  disposition  to 
turn  suddenly  about,  at  the  most  acute  angles,  for  the 
purpose  of  closely  inspecting  any  possible  vehicle  having 
straw  in  the  bottom  of  it,  and  a  seemingly  unconquerable 
belief  that  the  right  cross-street  to  take  was  for  ever  be- 
ing unexpectedly  arrived  at  on  his  blind  side,  were  suck 
prevalent  points  of  character  with  this  buckskin  horse, 
that  his  appearance  with  the  dray  in  a  crowded  thorough- 
fare always  threw  every  driver  of  a  perishable  vehicle 
within  reach  into  a  cold  perspiration  ;  and  when  to  these 
is  added  his  rakish  habit  (contracted,  no  doubt,  from  the 
loungers  in  the  fashionable  hotel  porches)  of  leering  most 
reprehensibly,  and  uttering  a  frightful  horse-laugh,  when- 
ever a  sorrel  lady  of  his  species  passed  by,  the  occasional 
passionate  remonstrances  of  his  unhappy  master  do  not 
appear  in  the  light  of  merely  wanton  adjectives. 

At  about  three  O'clock,  on  a  mild  November  after- 
noon, while  Mr.  Aster  lay  upon  his  back  on  the  dray 
before  City  Hall  Park,  waiting  for  business-proposals  and 
dreaming  dreams  of  wealthier  days,  this  buckskin  horse 
became  so  soured  against  all  the  world  by  the  pointed 
failure  of  a  passing  fashionable  coupe  maiden  of  hi<  ac- 
quaintance to  recognize  him,  that  he  split  the  air  with  a 
hideous  laugh  of  derision,  and  simultaneously  bit  a  goodly 
piece  from  the  side  of  a  nice  umbrella,  which  a  rcspecta- 


DEMORALIZATION    OF   JACK    ASTER.  125 

ble  old  gentleman  was  using  as  a  stage-signal  on  the  curb 
before  him. 

"  Bless  my  heart !  What's  this  ?"  exclaimed  the  gen- 
tleman, who  was  no  other  than  Mr.  Gayle.  "  Why,  Mr. 
drayman  !  is  this  yon,  again  ?" 

The  vengeful  jump  with  which  the  embittered  animal 
committed  the  assault  had  jerked  Mr.  Aster  out  of  his 
sombrero  and  his  dream  together,  and  he  now  sat  up  on 
the  dray  bareheaded,  in  a  searchingly  tragic  attitude. 

"  What  damages  do  you  claim,  my  man  ?"  asked  he, 
grimly ;  feeling  under  his  Spanish  cloak  for  his  pocket- 
book  and  glancing  no  recognition  from  his  bone  eye- 
glasses. 

"  Damages  ?  Nonsense  !"  exclaimed  Mr.  Gayle. 
"  Don't  you  remember  me,  my  friend  ?  I  was  in  Mr. 
Lardner's  carriage  that  day  when  you  ran  into  us." 

"I  remember  no  introduction  between  us  —  'my 
friend,' "  said  Aster,  coldly. 

"  No — ? — Excuse  me  ;  here's  my  stage. — Saw  you  at 
the  dinner-party. — Good-day." 

"  Hay  «" 

Several  nervous  horses  and  adjacent  draymen  jumped 
at  the  electrifying  exclamation,  and  the  bone  eyeglasses 
glared  after  him  who  had  evoked  it ;  but  he  was  already 
stepping  into  his  omnibus. 

Slowly  resuming  his  immense  hat,  and  wriggling  him- 
self off  his  dray,  the  sorely  tried  young  man  removed 
from  his  steed  the  faded  blue  military  overcoat,  which  he 
had  used  as  a  horse-blanket  since  adopting  the  Spanish 
cloak  for  every  day,  and  sadly  made  it  into  a  roll  suitable 
for  incidental  cartage. 

"  Mercutio,"  he  muttered,  to  the  buckskin  horse, 
."  another  goodly  vision  broken  by  you !     As  a  punish- 


120  DEMORALIZATION    OF   JACK   ASTER. 

ment,  I'll  take  you  to  the  place  that  aged  snob  has  re- 
minded me  of;  and  there  you  shall  stand  while  I  please, 
without  one  strawy  butcher-cart  iu  sight." 

Turning  too  quickly  to  observe  that  the  impenitent 
buckskin  horse  promptly  laid  back  his  ears  and  threw  a 
snapping  grin  over  his  opposite  shoulder,  the  speaker 
climbed  again  to  his  place,  and  at  once  started  such  a 
war  on  hubs  and  spokes  that  the  air  resounded  with 
hasty  Scriptural  allusions.  But  if  all  the  rest  of  wheel- 
ing Broadway  was  the  maledictory  Psalms  that  day,  he 
was  the  whole  book  of  Job ;  he  bore  everything  with 
a  patience  approaching  paralysis,  and  merely  smiled  in 
an  absent  manner  when  the  buckskin  horse  came  near 
biting  off  the  back-hair  of  an  overdressed  maiden  through 
the  open  rear- window  of  a  carriage  just  ahead.  A  pas- 
sing effort  of  his  establishment  to  go  up  a  side-street 
through  the  middle  of  a  Fulton  Ferry  omnibus,  evoked 
from  him  but  an  abstracted  sigh ;  and  the  loud  agita- 
tion of  a  furniture-wagon  man  at  an  attempt  of  the  buck- 
skin horse  to  carry  off  a  straw  bed,  scarcely  induced  him 
to  nod  feebly  in  response.  He  was  in  another  vision  : 
this  man  of  continual  heart-break :  and  rode  as  though 
he  cared  not. 

Lardner  Place  gained,  and  the  house  of  Mr.  Lardner 
brought  parallel  with  his  dray,  he  ingeniously  trans- 
formed the  buckskin  horse  into  a  kind  of  horizontal 
brigadier  again  by  means  of  the  military  overcoat, 
stamped  his  defective  boots  very  loudly,  a  number  of 
times,  on  the  neat  sidewalk,  and  approached  the  bell- 
pull.  A  moment  he  paused  thoughtfully,  and  half  turned 
back,  as  though  meditating  the  propriety  of  temporarily 
unhitching  his  Ilambletonian,  and  turning  him  out  in 
the  iron-railed  area  of  the  residence  during  his  stay ;  but 


DEMORALIZATION    OF   JACK    ASTER.  127 

as  suddenly  remembering  that  the  steed  was  to  be  pun- 
nished,  he  resolutely  resisted  the  humane  temptation,  and 
rang  before  it  could  become  too  strong  for  him. 

"  Johnny,"  said  he,  abstractedly,  to  the  venerable  Al- 
phonse, — who  once  more  greeted  him  in  that  doorway, 
with  the  old,  inquiring  half -smile, — "is  Lucy  in  and 
Lardner  out  ?" 

"  Mr.  Lardner  is  not  home  yet,  sir,"  quavered  the  foot- 
man, turning  somewhat  aghast  at  the  vision  of  the  dray 
in  the  Street ;  "  but,  if  you'll  please  to  walk  in,  I'll  tell 
Miss  Lucy " 

"  Stop,  menial !"  interrupted  Aster,  striding  into  the 
hall  and  nervously  seizing  him  by  the  collar,  u  I  am  in 
no  mood  just  now  for  the  mawkish  forms  and  ceremonies 
of  Shoddy.  I'll  call  her  myself. — Lucy!"  And  his 
rich  voice  rang  through  the  whole  building :  "  Lucy ! 
Lucy!  Hey,  Lucy!" 

From  her  own  dainty  sitting-room  above,  Miss  Lardner 
finally  darted  out  to  the  stairway-landing,  to  learn  what 
were  the  wild  waves  saying,  and  beheld  Alphonse  almost 
swooning  with  horror  below,  while  Aster  still  carolled  her 
name. 

"  Oh,  Cousin  John  !  for  pity's  sake  ! — "  And  she 
started  hastily  to  come  down ;  but  the  impetuous  young 
drayman  was  already  ascending  the  stairs  in  fierce, 
spidery  strides.  "  "Why  !  Cousin  Jack ! — you  must  n't,  I 
tell  you! — I  declare!"  And,  seeing  him  still  coming, 
she  darted  back,  with  a  little  scream,  into  the  room,  and 
slammed  the  door. 

It  being  a  part  of  Mr.  Aster's  genial  character  to  make 
himself  perfectly  at  home  with  his  friends,  he  did  not 
deem  it  necessary  to  knock,  upon  reaching  the  room- 
door  ;  but  simply  turned  the  latch  with  ready  ease  of 


128  DEMORALIZATION    OF   JACK   ASTER. 

manner,  and  immediately  caught  his  fair  cousin  in  the 
apparent  act  of  coming  in  marvelous  haste  from  a  tall 
closet. 

"  Upon  my  word,  sir,"  she  cried,  in  a  great  flutter, — 
partly  of  embarrassment,  partly  indignation — "you  do 
not  stand  upon  ceremony !" 

"  I  stand  upon  my  rights  as  a  Man,  girl,"  returned  the 
melancholy  drayman,  in  a  deep  voice.  "  In  the  eye  of 
honest  Nature,  you  are  only  a  woman,  I  am  only  a  man  ; 
and  we  are  the  same  up-stairs  as  down." 

"  Well,  Cousin  John,  now,  that  you  are  up  here,  I 
suppose  I  must  ask  you  to  sit  down ;  but  I  can  assure 
you,  that  were  it  not  for  One  reason, — just  one  Particular 
reason, — I  should  be  very  much  offended,  Sir,  at  your 
want  of  politeness." 

"  That  is  immaterial  to  me,"  said  Aster,  haughtily, 
after  so  decorating  a  globe  of  goldfish  with  his  hat  that 
it  looked  like  the  transparent  head  of  a  Castilian  ghost. 

"  You  are  rude !"  said  Miss  Lardner,  indignantly. 

"With  a  hollow  laugh  Mr.  Aster  lurched  heavily,  cloak 
and  all,  into  a  richly-embroidered  chair  never  intended 
to  be  sat  upon ;  and,  drawing  a  large,  bone-handled  knife 
from  a  pocket,  began  pairing  his  iron-like  nails. 

"  Rude,  you  say  ?  Well,  I  pretend  to  no  aristocratic 
airs.  I  am  an  honest  man,  and,  consequently,  the 
noblest  work  of  God.  I — I — I" — his  voice  suddenly 
quivered,  and  he  looked  at  her  with  dim  eyeglasses, — 
"  I — have  no — Mother !' 

All  her  gentle  woman-nature  melted  instantly  at  that 
plaintive  orphan-cry.  She  had  lost  her  own  dear  mother 
many  years  ago ;  yet  the  plaint  touched  her  as  though  it 
had  been  but  last  Christmas.  She  drooped  her  pretty 
blonde  head  and  sighed  exquisitely. 


DEMORALIZATION   OF   JACK   ASTER.  129 

"  There,  Cousin  Jack,  I  did  not  mean  to  be  cross  ;  but 
you  are  so  singular  in  some  of  your  ways.  You  surprise 
me  so  much  at  times.  I've  scarcely  recovered  yet  from 
the  fright  you  gave  me  about  that  wicked  charge  against 
you,  and — " 

"Hay?" 

"  Oh !  .  .  .  how  you  do  startle  me.  .  .  .  Forgive  me. 
I  know  I  promised  never  to  speak  of  it.  Do  forgive 
me." 

Aster  stared  from  the  top  of  her  head  to  the  ceiling, 
and,  from  that,  down  the  window  casement  to  the  floor, 
and  along  the  floor  to  her  feet,  and  from  them  to  her 
face  again. 

"  Girl,  come  and  sit  by  me  on  this  stool." 

"  But  first  let  me  tell—" 

"  Come  —  and —  sit —  here  —  on  — this — stool  !  !  "  He 
enunciated,  each  word  with  a  peremptory  distinctness 
awful  to  the  ear,  pointing  stiffly  down  to  the  stool  as  he 
spoke ;  and  she  could  do  nothing  else  than  meekly  obey. 

"  Now,  girl,  I  would  know — " 

"  But  first  let  me  tell Now,  Cousin  John,  keep 

your  arm  away.     I  will  not  have  it  now  !" 

Staring  stonily  into  blank  space  before  him,  he  deafly 
thrust  his  right  arm,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
Spanish  cloak,  at  a  descending  angle  around  her  waist ; 
and  after  a  vain  effort  to  rest  his  cheek  on  the  top  of  her 
struggling  head,  finally  rested  his  chin  there. 

"  And  now,  girl,  I  wTould  know  what  to  make  of  this 
life  of  mine,  which  causes  my  mind  to  spin — " 

"  Behave,  then.     Take  your  arm  away.     I  wont — " 

H  Silence  !  poor  little  fool.     Tell  me  what  to  make  of 
this  life  of  mine.     I  have  no  respect  for  the  opinions  of 
woman,  who  is  always  man's  inferior  ;  but  I  would  even 
6* 


130  DEMORALIZATION   OF   JACK   ASTER. 

hear  what  a  woman's  weak  head  can  make  of  this  life  of 
mine.  My  father  is  alienated  from  me  by  the  wiles  of 
one  of  your  viperous  sex.  I've  nothing  to  love  but  a 
knobby  buckskin  horse,  and  a  skeleton  news-boy  that  I 
found  starving  in  the  streets  one  night  and  have  adopted 
as  my  valet.  Everything  that  you  say,  ever}7 thing  that 
everybody  says,  causes  my  mind  to  spin.  What  is  this 
mystery  ?  What,  I  ask  you,  is  the  meaning  of  this  life 
of  mine?" 

"Don't  you  love  Her?"  asked  Lucy;  simultaneously 
drawing  her  head  from  under  his  chin  so  suddenly  that 
he  just  escaped  a  gymnastic  plunge  to  the  floor. 

"  Don't  do  that  again,  girl :  you  might  hurt  me. — Her  ? 
Her  ?     No,  I  can't." 

"  Oh,  Cousin  John  !  ( Wont  you  take  away  vour  arm  ?) 
Whv?" 

"  She's  too  manly." 

"Who?" 

"  The  hashy  widow  Haggle." 

a  Pshaw !"  exclaimed  Lucy.  "  Who  said  anything 
about  a  widow  ?"  And,  by  a  quick  turn  on  the  stool,  she 
escaped  his  arm  and  removed  herself  a  little  distance. 

The  eyeglasses  gleamed  upon  her  for  an  instant,  with 
something  almost  malevolent  in  their  glitter;  and  then 
the  man's  curly  black  head  went  back  with  a  thump  upon 
the  embroidered  chair,  and  his  defective  boots  were  ex- 
tended— one  to  another  chair  and  the  second  to  the  top 
of  a  sewing-machine. 

"  Lucy,"  said  Aster,  shaking  the  bone-handled  knife  at 
her  in  a  ghostly  manner,  "  you  love  me  yourself." 

"  Oh,  indeed,  Mr.  Aster;  and  may  I  ask  who — " 

"No  noise,  girl!  I  say  you  do,  and  I  want  no  unne- 
cessary noise  about  it.     We  are  both  as  good  as  orphans ; 


DEMORALIZATION   OF   JACK    ASTER.  131 

for  my  father  is  the  mere  creature  of  my  Female  Foe, 
and  Lardner  is  not  the  kind  of  man  whom  his  friends 
could  ever  have  wished  to  see  become  a  parent. — " 

"You  are  shamefully  disrespectful  and  ungrateful  to 
Pa  I"  interrupted  Lucy,  starting  up  in  great  anger ;  "  and 
after  I  have  opened  that — " 

"  Humbug !"  thundered  Aster,  bitterly.  " — But,  as  I 
was  remarking,  we  are  both  as  good  as  orphans,  and,  as 
you  and  Lardner  have  forced  yourselves  upon  me,  we 
may  as  well  sympathize  so  far  as  I'll  let  you.  I  came 
here  this  afternoon,  girl,  on  the  spur  of  a  mere  chance 
thought,  and  to  be  distracted  from  my  sorrows  by  wo- 
man's babble.  Why  do  you  shrink  from  a  lonely  orphan  ? 
Why  do  you  raise  your  voice  to  a  man  who  has  no  moth- 
er?— My  ch-ild,"  he  murmured,  with  sudden  touching 
and  piteous  emotion,  "  I  have  urgent  need  of  a  ruby  kiss 
from  you  at  this  moment." 

"  Hush,  Cousin  John  !"  pleaded  Lucy,  looking  nervous- 
ly toward  the  closet.  "  Only  think, — if  walls  have  ears  ! 
What  would  you  say,"  she  added,  quickly  changing  her 
manner  to  inconceivable  archness,  "  if  I  should  tell  you, 
that  when  you  came  to  the  door  this  afternoon  a  certain 
pretty  boarding-school-mate  of  mine  was  with  me  in  this 
room  \  What  would  you  say  if  I  told  you  that  She  did 
not  go  away  ?" 

"Hat?" 

"  What  would  you  say,"  she  continued,  involuntarily 
jumping  as  she  sped  swiftly  toward  the  closet,  "  if  I  were 
to  open  this  closet-door  in  this  way,  and  say — Come  out, 
dear  I" 

Out  walked  our  pretty  Dollie  Dapple,  her  cheeks  all 
aflame,  and  her  lids  drooping  so  low  in  maiden  timidity 
that  the  sweet  eyes  were  not  to  be  seen  ! 


132  DEMORALIZATION    OF   JACK   ASTER. 

Mr.  Aster's  sledge-like  feet  dropped  from  their  respect- 
ive elevations  with  two  separate  bangs,  and  their  wielder 
scuffled  up  in  his  Spanish  cloak  from  the  embroidered 
chair  like  some  Titanic  species  of  deadly  bat. 

"  J-J-John,"  stammered  Dollie,  coyly. 

"  I  have  the  honor  to  be  your  very  obedient  servant, 
madam,"  said  the  chilling  drayman,  bowing  as  though 
his  waist  and  hips  were  connected  by  a  hinge  which  se- 
riously needed  oiling. 

Dollie,  standing  all  in  a  tremble  where  he  had  first 
caught  sight  of  her,  gave  him  one  frightened  little  glance, 
and  then  turned  nervously  to  her  friend. 

u  Cousin  John,"  cried  Lucy,  "  do  you  feel  guilty  now  ? 
Never  mind  me. — We're  confidants  from  old  times,  you 
know. — Here's  the  one  to  give  you  that  ruby  kiss,  you 
unfaithful  lover !" 

"  Oh !  Lucy !  How  can  you  j"  and  poor  little  Dollie 
turned  to  the  arch-tormentor  as  to  a  wall. 

The  drayman  eyed  them  both  with  a  rather  ghastly 
expression  of  countenance  for  a  moment,  fitfully  pulling 
his  moustache  with  one  hand  and  restoring  the  knife  to 
Ins  pocket  with  the  other.  Then  the  spectre  of  a  faint 
wink  quivered  in  the  depths  of  the  right  sash  of  his  bone 
eyeglass,  and  he  stalked  solemnly  to  Miss  Dapple's  side 
and  threw  a  cloaked  arm  over  the  shoulders  of  either  girl. 

66  I'll  kiss  you  both,"  he  muttered,  grimly  squeezing 
them  together,  and  tickling  both  their  astonished  noses 
at  once  with  his  protruded  moustache — "  both  of  }7ou,  by 
Heavens !" 

"Let  me  go,  sir!" 

a  Cousin  John  ! — for  shame !" 

Dollie  broke  away,  and  fled,  sobbing  hysterically,  to  a 
settee,  where  she  sank  down  with  her  face  in  her  hands  ; 


DEMORALIZATION   OF  JACK  A8TEK.  133 

but  Miss  Lardner  threw  off  his  grasp  with  a  twirl,  and 
then  faced  him  in  a  passion  of  womanly  reproach. 

"  Is  this  the  way  you  meet  Her  again,  after  years  of 
absence,  and  after  I  was  so  delighted  to  have  you  happen 
here  together?"  exclaimed  Lucy,  advancing  tauntingly 
upon  him,  as,  with  a  craven  air,  he  began  retiring  back- 
ward toward  his  hat.  "  Do  you  dare  serve  her  in  this 
way  before  me,  after  all  you  told  me  long  ago,  in  this  very 
house,  about  your  own,  sweet,  little,  curly  Dollie — " 

"Hat?" 

And  backward  he  went  over  the  stool,  in  a  startling 
dissolving  view  of  patched  inexpressibles,  waving  boots, 
and  endless  Spanish  cloak. 

"  Oh  !'•  shrieked  Lucy,  lifting  both  hands.  "  Now 
you've  bumped  yourself." 

In  the  exciting  likeness  of  a  new  Faust,  struggling 
with  some  black  Spirit  of  Evil,  the  unhappy  Aster  wres- 
tled frenziedly  with  the  vast  folds  of  his  Spanish  garment, 
until  his  head  was  clear  from  them  again,  and  finally  re- 
gained his  feet. 

"  My  sombrero,  accursed  Girl !"  he  shouted,  hoarsely. 

"  But  won't  you  explain — ?" 

"  The  hat !"  he  hissed,  grinding  his  teeth  ;  and,  snatch- 
ing it  fiercely  from  her  shaking  hand,  he  fled,  in  long 
leaps,  from  the  room  and  down  the  stairs. 

Through  the  street-door  bounded  he,  with  a  convulsive 
gait  like  a  cat  in  a  fit.  Up  sprang  he  upon  his  dray,  with 
a  kick  for  the  buckskin  horse  from  whose  back  he  had 
not  lifted  the  warlike  overcoat ;  and  Mr.  Lardner,  just 
coming  around  the  corner  on  his  way  home,  saw  rattling 
furiously  past  him  a  vision  of  a  scowling  Castilian  grandee 
being  dragged  to  perdition,  on  a  cart,  by  a  hideous  mili- 
tary goblin. 


134  SWEETHEART   AND   COUSIN. 


XVI. 

SWEETHEART   AND   COUSIN. 

THE  girls,  each  as  he  had  left  her,  remained  motion- 
less until  Mr.  Lardner's  voice  sonnded  in  the  hall 
below,  when  Miss  Dapple  arose  forlornly  from  the  settee, 
and  went  mechanically  to  the  fatal  closet  for  her  bonnet 
and  cloak.  Though  no  longer  sobbing,  she  drew  her 
breath  in  audible  catches,  and  there  was  upon  her  flushed 
face  such  a  pitiful  look  of  mingled  shame  and  suffering, 
that  Lucy,  without  a  word,  caught  her  in  both  arms  as 
she  came  from  the  unlucky  hiding-place  again,  and  drew 
her  coaxingly  back  to  the  settee. 

"  I  must  go  at  once,"  whispered  Dollie,  faintly ;  hold- 
ing down  her  head  that  the  other  might  not  catch  her 
eye. 

"  No,  you  poor  dear,  not  yet,"  urged  Miss  Lardner, 
patting  her  shoulder  in  unspeakable  sympathy.  "  We 
must  talk  this  all  over,  Dollie,  before  you  go." 

"  Another  time,  Lucy.     I'm  so  miserable  now." 

"  He  behaved  shamefully !"  ejaculated  her  friend, 
stamping  a  tiny  foot,  "  Shamefully !  I  never  saw  any- 
thing like  it,  and  I  hope  he'll  never  come  again." 

"  But  it  served  me  right." 

"Why,  had  you  done  anything  to  offend  him?" 

"  I  had  behaved  like  a  goose !"  returned  Dollie,  straight- 
ening, and  lifting  her  head  impatiently.  "It  was  silly 
and  unmaidenly  in  me  to  go  into  the  closet  at  all,  any 
when  I  came  out  I  felt  perfectly  ashamed  of  myself.3' 


SWEETHEART    AND    COUSIN.  135 

"If  one  can't  practice  a  little  joke  with  one's  sweet- 
heart there  ought  to  be  no  fun  at  all  in  the  world.  I  feel 
as  though  you  were  blaming  me  when  you  talk  in  that 
way,  Dollie." 

"  I'm  afraid  we  both  acted  a  little  unwisely,"  said 
Dollie,  catching  her  breath  again.  "He  seemed  to 
despise  me." 

"  ~No w,  you  poor  child  !  don't  talk  like  a  real  goose," 
said  Lucy,  failing,  in  her  earnestness,  to  reflect,  that  talk 
of  that  ornithological  description  would  be  remarkable 
indeed.  "He  hadn't  the  least  business  in  the  world  to 
come  to  this  room,  and  there  wasn't  the  least  bit  of  harm 
in  my  hiding  you.  As  for  his  despising  you,  he  seems  to 
despise  everybody  but  himself.  Did  you  hear  how  he 
talked  to  me  before  you  came  out  ?" 

"  I  was  too  nervous  to  listen." 

"  Well,  he  actually  said  I  was  a  '  fool ! '  " 

"  He  is  dreadfully  changed,  Lucy.  He  looks  much  as 
he  used  to,  except  his  dress,  moustache,  and  eyeglasses ; 
but  his  manner  is  completely  changed." 

"  His  spite  against  women  is  something  awful,"  re- 
sponded Lucy,  in  a  milder  manner  than  before,  "  and, 
when  we  think  what  he  and  his  brother  owe  to  their 
Stepmother,  there  may  be  a  little  excuse  for  that.  He's 
so  very  peculiar,  too  :  so  bitterly  proud,  and  so  morbidly 
sensitive  about  his  mishaps  and  vulgar  calling,  that  one 
can't  judge  him  just  as  one  would  another  kind  of  person." 

"  Perhaps  he  was  disgusted  at  our  undignified  joke," 
murmured  Dollie,  disconsolately.  u  Just  think,  Lucy,  I 
hadn't  seen  him  before  since  the  War ;  and  then  to  think 
of  my  coming  out  to  him  from  a  closet !  I  know  I'm 
served  just  right.  He  despises  me  for  my  indelicacy, 
and  I  feel  humiliated  enough  to  go  and  drown  myself." 


136  SWEETHEART   AND    COUSIN. 

Whereupon  the  Toyman's  daughter  hid  her  face  on  the 
shoulder  of  her  friend,  and  cried  heartily.  .  Blonde  and 
brunette  never  came  more  prettily  together  than  when 
the  two  sat  thus ;  the  contrast  between  the  fashionable 
attire  of  the  one  and  the  plain  street-toilet  of  the  other 
making  the  group  but  the  more  picturesque. 

"  Dollie,"  said  the  blonde,  after  her  friend's  first  trans- 
port was  over,  "  I  must  tell  you  something.  I  did  pro- 
mise Cousin  John  I'd  never  breathe  it  to  anybody,  not 
even  to  him  again ;  but  it  strikes  me  that  you  should 
know  it,  and  I'm  going  to  tell  you.  That  is,  I'll  tell 
you  all  I  know  of  it  myself.  I  think  that  much  of  the 
strangeness  in  his  manner — his  startling  querulous  ways, 
and  indisposition  to  recognize  old  friends — is  owing  to 
his  martyrdom  under  a  cruel  and  wicked  accusation  of 
Crime !" 

"  Oh,  Lucy  !  Lucy  !" 

"Be  calm,  now,  poor  child.  You'll  never  breathe  it 
again  to  a  living  soul — not  even  to  him  ?" 

"  No,  no." 

"  He's  actually  accused  of  taking  somebody's  watch. 
He  told  me  the  watch  was  recovered — I  don't  under- 
stand about  it,  you  know — and  says  his  Stepmother  laid 
the  plot  against  him.  Well,  with  his  pride  and  his  sen- 
sitiveness, is  it  strange  that  he  sometimes  acts  like  a 
maniac  ?" 

The  Toyman's  daughter  was  trembling  like  a  leaf,  and 
looked  very  much  like  fainting. 

"  The  watch  ! — my  father  ! — that  day  !"  she  gasped. 

"  Your  father's  watch  ?"  questioned  the  other,  in 
alarm. 

"  My  father  thought  he  had  lost — "  began  Dollie,  with 
dilating  eyes  ;  but  suddenly  stopped,  coloring  as  violently 


SWEETIIEAST   AND   COUSIN.  137 

as  she  had  paled  before.     "  I  was  thinking  of  something 
else,     No  matter  about  it,"  she  explained  hurriedly. 

"  You're  half  sick  from  this  unlucky  afternoon's  work," 
whispered  Miss  Lardner,"  and  will  never  come  to  see  us 
again,  I'm  afraid.  Now  let  us  only  remember,  for  a 
minute  or  two,  that  we  were  schoolgirls  together  once  in 
Pennsylvania,  and  that  I  did'nt  know  at  all  then  who 
your  beau  was.  Pa  and  the  Asters  had  been  at  swords' 
points  for  so  many  years,  that  I  didn't  know  I  had  such 
cousins.  And  when  you  went  home  from  school,  your 
Stepmother  was  dying,  and  your  father  sick?  Poor 
child,  you  had  trouble  enough  then,  I  should  think,  to 
do  for  one  mortal !  Has  your  father  succeeded  yet  with 
his  Walking  Doll «" 

"  Not  yet.     I'm  afraid  he  never  will." 

"  And  why  hav'n't  you  been  to  see  me  oftener  ?  Only 
twice  in  a  year  !" 

"  We're  so  differently  situated  in  life,  you  know, 
Lucy." 

"  Now,  Dollie  Dapple !  that  doesn't  sound  like  you." 

"  No,  dear,  I  know  it  does  not.  You  treated  me  like 
a  sister  at  school,  and  I  do  feel  toward  you  like  a  sister." 

"  That's  a  darling." 

"  I  have  more  cares  at  home  than  you  would  suppose," 
said  Dollie,  with  a  long-drawn  sigh,  "  and  seldom  go  any- 
where now,  except  to  church.  I  don't  know  when  I'd 
been  out  for  myself  before  that  morning  when  I  saw 
Joh — I  mean  Mr.  Aster,  with  that — that — little  thing 
in  his  arms." 

"  Well  there  !"  laughed  Lucy,  brightening  up,  "  didn't 
I  tell  you,  when  you  first  came,  how  Pa  found  out  all 
about  that  from  old  Mr.  Aster  himself  ?  We  can  afford 
to  forgive  the  young  man  for  that  exploit." 


138  SWEETHEART   AND   COUSIN. 

"  Oh,  I  must  tell  you  what  I'd  commenced  telling  when 
Mr. — I  mean,  your  Cousin,  came  and  interrupted  us," 
remarked  Dollie,  going  back  to  the  old  subject  again. 
a  I've  only  just  found  out,  that  a  hateful  boy,  who  comes 
to  open  and  close  the  store  for  us,  lives  with  Joh — your 
cousin.  He  had  always  said  that  his  s  boss,'  as  he  called 
him,  was  some  '  General,'  and  we  thought  it  was  pro- 
bably some  low  fellow  nicknamed  in  that  way ;  but  I've 
found  out  now  who  the  '  General '  is,  and  that  he  picked 
up  the  hateful  creature  when  he  was  almost  dying  of 
hunger  and  cold  in  the  streets,  and  has  been  a  father  to 
him  ever  since." 

"  That  was  noble  in  Cousin  John — noble  !"  exclaimed 
the  blonde,  blushing  beautifully  in  her  enthusiasm.  "  I 
must  tell  Pa  of  that.  I  remember,  now,  John  spoke  to 
me  of  a  street-boy  :  and  of  his  own  horse,  too.  He  spoke 
kindly  of  both.  Dollie,  we  must  forgive  Cousin  John 
everything !" 

"  He's  never  come  to  see  me,  at  all,  though  he  lives  in 
Dame  Street,  close  by,"  said  Dollie,  faintly  ;  not  seeming 
to  greatly  enjoy  Miss  Lardner's  show  of  feeling. 

"  That's  for  the  same  reason  which  made  him  act  so 
with  you  this  afternoon.  The  cruel  watch-business,  you 
know.  I  shouldn't  be  surprised  if  his  frightful  dress,  and 
the  draying  business,  were  only  adopted  as  disguises  un- 
til he  can  rid  himself  of  the  charge." 

"  But  he  comes  here  ?" 

u  Oh,  we're  his  relatives,  you  know." 

"  Ye-e-s,  I  see,"  said  Dollie. 

"  I  do  believe  you're  jealous,"  retorted  Lucy,  blushing 
again  for  no  particular  reason.  "  Do'n't  you  suppose, 
little  goose,  that  a  young  man  so  situated  must  feel  worse 
about  facing  the  girl  he  loves,  but  hasn't  seen  in  years, 


SWEETHEART   AND   COUSIN".  139 

than  about  meeting  an  uncle  in  whose  house  he  has 
lived  ?" 

"  I  suppose  so,"  said  Dollie,  more  pacified. 

The  female  critic  will  here  accuse  Miss  Lardner  of 
playing  a  very  disingenuous  part :'  inasmuch  as  she,  being 
a  rational  woman,  must  have  Known,  very  well,  that  the 
eccentric  Aster's  continued  absence  from  his  lady-love, 
while  he  was  not  too  sensitive  to  call  upon,  and  even  en- 
deavor repeatedly  to  kiss,  a  pretty  half-cousin,  was  not 
exclusively  indicative  of  that  faithful  passion  which  oc- 
casionally induces  desponding  lovers  to  seek  oblivion  in 
beer.  But  if  she  was  thus  disingenuous,  it  might  be  safely 
charged  to  nothing  less  amiable  than  an  honest  wish  to 
spare  her  friend  the  pain  of  believing  herself  neglected 
for  another.  It  is  in  keeping  with  a  very  magnanimous 
trait  of  female  character,  that,  even  after  a  young  woman 
at  the  very  topmost  bloom  of  back-hair  has  received  quite 
a  number  of  particular  attentions  from  an  eligible  and 
thin-legged  young  man,  she  will  often  be  so  extremely 
ready  to  surrender  him  in  another's  favor,  as  to  actually 
say  so,  in  a  very  hysterical  manner,  whenever  Another  so 
much  as  names  him  before  her.  To  hear  a  hysterical 
maiden,  under  such  circumstances,  say,  with  marked  tit- 
terly  effusion  :  "  You  may  have  him,  for  all  Me !"  is  to 
enjoy  and  admire  one  of  human  nature's  noblest  and  most 
elevating  examples  of  self-sacrifice. 

"  Depend  upon  it,  Dollie,"  said  Lucy,  in  farther  pur- 
suance of  tlris  amiable  intent,  "  now  that  he  has  seen  you 
once,  lie  will  soon  see  you  again  :  and  if  you  tell  your 
father,  that  Pa  thinks  old  Mr.  Aster  will  yet  receive  his 
sons  back  again;  or  at  any  rate,  will  give  them  their 
rightful  shares  in  his  property,  he  surely  can  not  object 
to  John's  attentions." 


140        THE  STORY  OF  THE  WALKING  DOLL. 

"  Oh,  well,  I  sha'n't  break  my  heart  about  it,  one  way 
or  the  other,"  returned  the  Toyman's  daughter,  rising 
from  the  settee,  and  settling  her  cloak,  to  hide  the  feel- 
ing more  evident  in  her  face  than  in  her  speech.  "  Is 
that  a  French  merino  you  have  on,  Lucy  ?" 

Then  ensued  that  fragmentary  discussion  of  each  other's 
attire,  in  which,  under  all  the  most  solemn  exigencies  of 
life,  women  are  obliged  to  indulge ;  and  finally  Miss 
Dapple  started  for  home  behind  such  a  thick  green  veil, 
that  her  ultimate  emotion  was  not  to  be  detected. 


XVII. 

THE   STORY   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

TO  make  a  Doll  which,  without  having  much  more 
intellectual  expression  of  face  than  a  fashionable 
belle,  should  be  able  to  Walk  as  well,  and,  at  the  same 
time,  be  nearly  as  fit  for  a  man's  wife.  Such  had  been 
the  inventive  aim  of  Geoffrey  Dapple  for  ten  good  years 
of  his  life,  and  now  he  seemed  no  nearer  success  than  on 
the  happier  day  when  he  first  set  to  work  on  it.  That 
day,  by  the  by,  was  also  the  beginning  of  his  recovery 
from  the  inert  despondency  into  which  he  had  been  cast 
by  the  loss  of  his  first  wife,  Dollie's  amiable  mother, 
who  had  succumbed  as  much,  perhaps,  to  the  monotonous 
drudgery  and  petty  miseries  of  poverty,  as  to  any  acute 
physical  ailing.  As  is  usual  in  the  earliest  protest  of  a 
spirit  still  rebelliously  alive,  after  the  due  course  of  a 
prostrating  grief,  the  bereaved  husband  at  last  found  his 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    WALKING    DOLL.  141 

mind  craving  some  new  and  absorbing  occupation  which 
should  at  least  divert  it  from  a  longer  exclusive  devotion 
to  thoughts  of  the  Irreparable.  Benignant  Mature  pro- 
vides, by  this  yearning,  or  craving,  (at  first  so  vague  and 
intermittent,)  for  the  human  soul's  gradual  and  becoming 
triumph  over  sorrows  which,  for  a  due  space,  are  refining 
and  wholesome  for  it,  but  if  too  long  held  in  stagnant 
singleness,  become  its  perverted  poison ;  and  the  stricken 
Toyman,  feeling  this  recuperative  impulse  stirred  within 
him,  tried  rather  listlessly  to  satisfy  it  with  many  smaller 
diversions,  and  finally  came  to  the  requisite  panacea  in 
the  problem  of  a  Walking  Doll. — Not  a  counterfeit  pre- 
sentment of  womanhood,  mind  you,  that  should  hitch 
painfully  along  by  aid  of  an  unnatural  piece  of  metal  ever 
coming  through  the  bottom  of  the  foot  lifted  and  advanc- 
ing : — that  sort  of  monster  had  already  thrown  nervous 
childhood  into  fits  : — but  a  fairy  figure  which,  by  the  ap- 
pliance of  artful  clock-work  and  quicksilver,  should  step 
with  a  clear  sole  and  unbetrayed  mechanism. 

An  exhilarative  impulse  to  the  energies,  like  that  com- 
ing with  a  man's  first  love,  often  developes  unexpected 
genius ;  but  who  shall  say  how  many  noble  inventions 
and  discoveries  this  thoughtless  old  World  owes  to  the 
sublimer  reactionary  impulse  of  ennobled  Grief?  If  the 
promised  bride,  in  her  glowing  maiden-wreath,  may  point 
proudly  to  the  lover's  sudden  triumph  before  men  as  the 
inspiration  of  the  mighty  passion  She  has  called  to  exist- 
ence, the  taken  Wife,  in  her  last  cold  sleep  amongst  the 
lilies,  should  sometimes  know  sweet  dreams  as  the  gentle 
giver  of  a  blessed  Sorrow,  to  rise  transfigured  and  im- 
mortal in  a  lonely  husband's  apotheosis  of  its  final  pang 
in  some  Master-Work  for  humanity.  Often  may  Genius 
greet  the  first  great  moment  of  its  consummation  with  a 


142        THE  STOKY  OF  THE  WALKING  DOLL. 

divine  flash  of  the  eye  :  often  does  it  consecrate  the  death- 
less victory  with  a  human  tear. 

The  bereaved  Toyman  awoke  from  the  inaction  of  his 
grief,  to  become  suddenly  earnest  and  tireless  in  an  at- 
tempt to  make  a  "Walking  Doll.  Day  and  night  he  la- 
bored and  experimented,  at  his  work-bench  in  the  room 
behind  the  store,  leaving  his  child  to  wait  upon  the  few 
customers  for  his  other  ingenious  toys.  In  springs,  cog- 
wheels, wire,  screws,  and  other  incipiencies  of  the  work, 
he  spent  nearly  all  the  money  taken  over  the  counter,  and 
little  Dollie  would  have  fared  badly  but  for  an  elderly 
man  and  his  mature  daughter,  who  rented  two  upper 
rooms  in  the  old  house,  and  whose  frequent  kind  offices 
kept  both  Dollie  and  her  father  from  the  worst  results  of 
such  imprudence.  Geoffrey  Dapple,  for  all  his  absorption 
in  his  new  idea,  came,  by  degrees/to  notice  and  feel  grate- 
ful for  the  housewifely  kindnesses  of  the  mature  daughter ; 
and,  as  she  was  a  lively,  good-looking  woman,  and  he  a 
naturally  social  being  and  in  the  prime  of  life,  the  twain 
at  last  became  one.  Possibly  he  was  helped  to  this  step 
by  the  need  of  a  feminine  guardian  for  his  motherless 
child,  and  the  probability  that  the  acquisition  of  such  a 
wife  as  Lydia  Fielding  vrould  so  relieve  him  of  household 
cares  and  petty  business  calls  as  to  leave  better  opportu- 
nity for  the  pursuit  of  his  invention.  At  any  rate,  he 
married  Lydia,  loving  her  sufficiently — or,  at  least,  admir- 
ing her  enough — and  then  gave  himself  up  to  the  work- 
bench with  even  greater  intensity  than  before.  By  this 
time,  his  clock-work,  for  giving  the  proper  motions  to  his 
automaton,  was  nearly  perfect ;  and  he  was  eagerly  ex- 
perimenting for  the  quicksilver  Balance,  which,  by  being 
mechanically  tilted  aright  as  the  Doll  lifted  a  foot,  should 
throw  the  centre  of  gravity  to  the  opposite  side  of  the 


THE   STORY    OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL.  143 

figure.  Here  was  the  real  difficulty  to  be  mastered,  and 
10  great  knowledge  of  practical  mechanics  is  required  to 
show  how  apparently  unconquerable  it  was.  His  Balance, 
is  he  made  it  at  first,  was  a  piece  of  metal,  through  which 
i  spiral  passage  communicated  at  either  end  with  a  small 
lollow  knob  containing  the  quicksilver.  Here  was  the 
Slide  idea.  By  the  same  movement  that  lifted  and  threw 
forward  a  foot,  the  corresponding  end  of  the  Balance,  up 
somewhere  in  her  ladyship's  lungs,  was  lifted  also ;  per- 
nitting  the  quicksilver  in  the  knob  to  run  through  the 
;piral  passage  toward  the  knob  at  the  other  end,  and  thus, 
vy  graduations,  throw  the  balance  on  that  side.  Thou- 
ands  of  times  did  the  persevering  inventor  start  his  little 
netal  box  of  clockwork,  on  symmetrical  legs,  to  try  .a 
)romenade  on  his  work-bench,  and  as  many  times  did  the 
ncipient  lady  tumble  over,  most  ingloriously,  after  two 
>r  three  stately  steps  forward.  Her  disease  was  plainly 
n  the  spiral  passage,  which  must  be  so  adapted,  in  its 
:apacity  and  time  of  conducting  the  subtle  metal,  to  the 
rarying  natural  balance  of  the  figure,  as  to  preserve  an 
iquilibrium  and  help  a  change  of  gravity  simultaneously, 
rhe  two  or  three  clumsy  steps  which  GeofTrey's  Doll  did 
uake  under  difficulties,  were  enough  to  incite  his  whole 
ife  to  the  task  of  making  her  perfect,  and  continued  fail- 
ire  only  spurred  him  on  the  more. 

For  some  time,  the  new  wife  bore  patiently  enough 
rith  her  husband's  devotion  to  his  invention ;  and  took 
harge  of  his  other  interests  with  such  energy  that  the 
tore-business  improved  apace,  and  Dollie  could  attend 
»ublic  school  and  present  a  clean,  well-fed  appearance, 
^fter  a  while,  however,  as  the  novelty  of  her  situation 
apsed  into  monotony,  and  GeofTrey's  neglect  of  every- 
hing  in  life  but  his  Doll,  assumed  more  the  character  of 


1A4:  THE    STORY   OF   THE    WALKING    DOLL. 

an  injury,  she  began  showing  a  fretfulness  which  soon 
intensified  to  chronic  infirmity  of  temper,  and  both  the 
Toyman  and  his  daughter  were  the  victims.  The  former 
endured  all  her  scoldings  with  the  patience  of  mental 
abstraction,  until  they  were  directed  with  furious  con- 
tempt against  his  Invention.  Then  they  became  too 
much  for  his  philosophy,  and  he  retorted  in  such  wrathful 
terms  that  all  hope  of  peace  left  the  house  for  good.  De- 
claring that  if  her  husband  cared  more  for  a  nonsensical 
doll-clock  than  for  his  wife,  she  was  not  going  to  work 
and  stint  herself  any  more  for  him,  Mrs.  Dapple  became 
vengefully  careless  and  extravagant,  went  out  calling 
when  she  should  have  remained  at  home,  threatened 
a  score  of  times  to  throw  the  sacred  Doll  into  the  fire, 
and  was  so  high  with  poor  little  Doliie  that  the  child 
learned  to  hate  as  well  as  fear  her. 

In  this  unhappy  state  of  things,  (from  which  the  lady's 
prudent  father  very  wisely  held  himself  aloof  until  he 
died,)  the  Toyman's  first  manly  measure  was  the  sending 
of  his  ill-used  daughter  to  a  boarding-school  near  Phila- 
delphia. This  cost  money,  and  was  fresh  food  for  Mrs. 
Dapple's  ire.  In  this  case,  too,  the  inventor  retorted  hot- 
ly ;  and,  one  day,  after  a  particularly  furious  quarrel, 
actually  ran  from  the  house  to  cool  his  anger  in  the 
street.  Upon  his  return,  in  a  few  moments,  he  found  the 
store-ladder  reared  against  the  tall  window  of  his  work- 
room,  the  red  curtain  curiously  tucked  and  bagged  up 
around  its  rod,  and  his  wife  lying  close-by  upon  the  floor, 
like  a  dead  person,  with  blood  streaming  from  a  ghastly 
wound  on  her  head ! 

Stricken  with  horror,  and  a  sense  of  guilt,  at  the  sight, 
he  fled  wildly  to  the  street  again,  calling  for  lt  Help."  The 
tirst  stranger  to  answer  was  a  dissipated-looking  charac- 


THE    STORY   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL.  145 

ter  from  a  neighboring  bar-room,  who,  after  hearing  the 
crazed  husband's  incoherent  ravings,  said  he  was  a  "  Doc- 
tor," and  pushed  and  pulled  the  frantic  Toyman  back 
into  the  fatal  room.  Thither  followed  an  excited  crowd 
from  the  street,  to  whom  the  ready  Doctor,  after  exam- 
ing  the  insensible  woman's  wound,  and  surveying  a  chair 
near  the  window,  explained  that  Mrs.  Dapple  had  fallen 
from  the  ladder  and  fractured  her  skull.  He  seemed,  in- 
deed, to  comprehend  the  whole  situation  at  a  glance ;  for 
after  one  look  at  the  pale,  muttering  Toyman,  who  stood 
wringing  his  hands  over  his  wife,  and  one  sweeping  look 
around  the  poor,  disordered  room,  he  declared  that  the 
woman  must  be  taken  immediately  to  an  hospital. 

"  Some  one  there,  call  a  hack !"  he  cried,  addressing 
the  group  of  excited  faces  in  the  doorway.  "  Be  quick,  I 
tell  you !" 

The  hack  came,  and,  without  a  word  of  remonstrance 
from  her  husband,  Mrs.  Dapple  was  hastily  borne  into  it 
by  a  superfluity  of  kind  hands,  and  so  conveyed  to  the 
hospital ;  for  Geoffrey  had  been  little  better  than  a  mani- 
ac since  re-entering  the  place,  and  did  but  groan,  and 
Avring  his  hands,  and  stare  in  helpless  horror  here  and 
there.  As  the  hack  drove  off,  and  the  volatile  crowd  re- 
treated after  it,  he  fixed  upon  the  Doctor  a  look  of  awful 
incredulity,  suffocated  a  moment  with  some  unutterable 
word  in  his  throat,  and,  clenching  'his  hands,  dropped 
senseless  to  the  ground. 

There  followed  long  weeks  of  fever  and  delirium,  dur- 
ing which  his  wife  died  in  the  hospital,  and  was  buried ; 
and  Dollie  came  home  from  school  to  nurse  him  slowly 
back  to  strength  and  reason  again. 

Finally,  when  he  arose  from  his  bed,  a  bowed  and  shat- 
tered man,  to  love  his  daughter  as  he  had  never  lovechher 
7 


146  A   CONVERT    FROM   RASCALITY. 

before,  and  hold  the  window  and  its  furled  curtain  in  a  kind 
of  horrified  sanctity,  the  Walking  Doll  was  nowhere  to 
be  found. 


XVIII. 

A   CONVERT   FROM   RASCALITY. 

It  was  about  Five  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  and  Dr. 
Canary  had  just  ornamented  the  show-window  of  the  Toy 
store  with  a  new  Jegenclary  card — 

"  Come  in,  good  friend,  and  buy  your  home  a  joy, 
In  doll,  or  wagon,  for  your  girl,  or  boy; 
Nor  be  discouraged,  though  the  last,  you  say, 
Was  prized,  and  broken, — aye,  and  thrown  away! 
E'en  buy  another.     Mark  your  playhouse  great, 
Where  dolls  are  angels,  and  a  wagon  state : 
See  how  they're  petted,  prized  a  moment, — lost, 
Though  honor,  virtue,  human  blood  they  cost ! 
What's  your  extravagance  to  that,  in  span, 
Where  Fate's  the  player  and  the  toy  is  Man?" 

He  paused  awhile,  to  study  the  first  popular  efTect  of 
this  philosophical  contribution  to  the  literature  of  his  new 
trade ;  and  soon  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  the  other 
side  of  the  window  bordered  with  such  a  throng  of  read- 
ing patrons  as  the  latest  verse  at  Dapple  &  Co.'s  invaria- 
bly attracted  in  these  days.  From  his  point  of  observa- 
tion behind  the  dense  flight  of  paper  kites  which  partial- 
ly lined  the  inner  sashes,  he  was  able  to  study  the  varied 
face*  directed  toward  his  amazing  lines  ;  to  note  that  the 


A   CONVERT   FROM    RASCALITY.  147 

younger  ones  evidently  relished  them  as  a  joke,  and  the 
older  ones  as  a  bit  of  choice  advertising  morality ;  and 
to  detect  one  pair  of  small,  foxy  eyes,  peering  through 
an  opening  in  the  cloud  of  kites  into  the  dark  store 
itself. 

"  So,  there  you  are  again,  ray  friend  Stalker  !"  he  mut- 
tered to  himself.  "  There  you  are,  my  smart  boy,  looking 
as  knowing  and  frank  as  you  did  in  the  police-court  that 
day.  Perhaps  you'd  like  to  see  the  old  man  alone,  for 
just  a  moment,  in  reference  to  that  watch  business  again ; 
and  perhaps  you'll  get  a  chance  if  you  only  hover  around 
the  premises  long  enough.  I  wonder  that  a  man  of  your 
good  taste  don't  drop  in  once  in  a  while  and  have  a  chat 
with  the  Poet  of  the  Establishment." 

The  said  Poet  grinned  to  himself  behind  a  large  blue 
kite,  snapped  a  couple  of  his  finger-joints,  and  walked 
slowly  down  the  store  to  the  connecting  doorway  of  the 
memorable  room  beyond.  2sTow  that  he  wore  a  gentle- 
manly black  suit,  and  his  nose  had  lost  much  of  its  former 
bloom,  he  was  as  respectable  a  figure  as  any  popular 
warehouse  could  ask  for  its  salesman-in-chief;  and  the 
graver  expression  coming  over  his  countenance,  as  he 
leaned  against  a  side  of  the  doorway  and  looked  within  at 
his  partner  working  there  as  usual,  made  him  appear  al- 
most like  a  man  whom  one  could  trust. 

Indeed,  a  superficial  reader  of  faces  might  have  sup- 
posed that  his  was  thoughtfully  alive  with  a  very  kindly 
compassion,  as  he  leaned  there  watching  the  haggard  old 
workman  at  the  bench,  and  apparently  taking  pitying 
note  of  every  passage  of  the  file. 

"  Isn't  it  most  time  to  rest,  partner  ?" 

"  I'll  rest  when  I'm  tired." 

"  Ah,  that's  a  correct  principle,  and  I  don't  know  that 


148  A   CONVERT   FROM   RASCALITY. 

it  ever  struck  me  before.  Only  let  a  man  really  rest 
when  lie's  tired,  and  he'll  live  to  be  a  hundred  years  old. 
A  Yankee  never  does,  and  so  he  puts  on  his  rosewood,  or 
mahogany,  overcoat  at  about  forty-five." 

~No  response. 

"  I  should  think,  Dapple,  that  the  Concern  might  afford 
gas  in  this  room  nowadays." 

u  If  you  want  it,  you  can  have  it  put  in." 

Geoffrey  had  not  once  looked  up  from  his  work  since 
first  addressed,  and  answered  like  an  automaton. 

"  I  don't  want  it,  I'm  sure,"  said  the  unruffled  Dr. 
Canary.  "I  spoke  wholly  on  your  account,  partner. 
You'll  lose  your  sight,  yet,  and  then  I  shall  have  to  take 
the  Walking  Doll  in  hand,  myself." 

"  You  can  do  it  now.     You're  Master  here." 

"  Not  quite  that."  With  a  laugh,  and  change  of  leg. 
"  It's  strange  that  you  should  have  lost  your  first  model 
of  the  clock-work  and  Balance,  as  you  did ;  but,  being  a 
physician,  I  can  understand  how  that  long  term  of  con- 
gestion of  the  brain  blotted  the  first  clear  points  of  the 
invention  out  of  your  head,  so  that  you've  never  been 
able  to  bring  the  Doll  so  near  a  Walk  since." 

The  old  Toyman  filed  away  at  the  piece  of  brass  in  his 
vice,  as  though  he  heard  not  a  word. 

"  The  question  is  ;  will  it  ever  Walk  ?     It  seems  to  me,* 
partner,   that  you're  trying   to   accomplish   an   impossi- 
bility." 

Geoffrey  looked  up  now  ;  and  regarded  the  persistent 
"  talkist  "  with  anything  but  a  friendly  smile. 

"If  it's  an  impossibility,"  said  he,  "the  sooner  I  shall 
go  mad  over  it,  and  the  sooner  you'll  have  all  you  can  get. 
It's  the  only  thing  that  saves  me  from  going  mad  just  now  ; 
and  if  you're  a  wise  man — a  Wise  man,  I  say — you'll  be 


A   CONVERT   FROM    RASCALITY.  149 

contented  with  what  you've  got,  and  leave  me  this  in 
peace." 

"  Upon  my  word,  I'm  sorry  you  continue  to  regard  me 
in  that  light,"  observed  Dr.  Canary,  with  an  earnestness 
of  voice  and  manner  unmistakably  regretful.  "  Howev- 
er," continued  he,  "  as  the  subject  appears  to  offer  noth- 
ing but  offense,  I'll  change  it.  You  ought  to  know,  Mr. 
Dapple,  that  I've  noticed  three  eccentric  characters  affect- 
ing the  front  show-window  quite  particularly,  during  the 
week,  and  think,  from  their  actions,  that  my  presence  in 
the  store  has  an  influence  in  keeping  them  out.  As  you 
never  leave  the  house  in  these  times,  and  I  am  on  view 
all  day,  you  may  miss  them  altogether,  or  they  you  ;  and 
so  occasion  inconvenience  to  somebody.  Suppose  I  spend 
a  few  hours  out  to-morrow  ?" 

"I  don't  know  who  you're  talking  about,"  answered 
Geoffrey  Dapple,  shortly.     "  Go  and  come  as  you  please." 

"  One  of  the  three,"  continued  Canary,  "  is  a  foreign- 
looking  chap,  in  a  long  black  coat,  and  the  biggest  hat  I 
ever  saw.  He  wears  eyeglasses  and  a  moustache,  and  has 
flattened  his  nose  against  the  window  at  least  three  times. 
The  second  is  a  stoutish,  well-dressed  woman,  with  a  thick 
black  veil.  She  only  came  close  to  the  window  once ;  but 
I've  seen  her  pass-by  several  times  in  one  afternoon,  and  al- 
ways eyeing  the  place,  apparently.  Both  of  these  myste- 
rious individuals  lose  all  interest  in  the  establishment  the 
moment  they  catch  sight  of  me.  The  third  is  a  man  who 
takes  a  sweeping  stare  into  us  through  the  middle  pane  at 
least  twice  a  week.  I  know  who  he  is — a  detective  po- 
liceman." 

Down  dropped  the  file  from  the  Toyman's  hand,  and 
the  Toyman  again  turned  a  lowering,  scowling  face  upon 
the  speaker. 


150  A   CONVEET   FROM   RASCALITY. 

"In  the  devil's  name  what  more  do  you  want  of  me  |" 
he  passionately  asked.  "  What  more  is  there  to  gain  here, 
that  you  must  make-up  a  fool's  storv,  to  remind  me,  that 
you  can  give  me  over  to  the  law  ?  I  tell  you,  if  you  are  a 
wise  man — a  "Wise  Man — leave  me  alone  with  this  work 
of  mine,  and  don't  torment  me  too  much  !  I'm  a  father. 
That's  your  security  nowT  But  I'm  a  man,  too,  of  weak 
flesh  and  blood — almost  a  madman — and  one  turn  too 
much  of  the  screw  may  drive  me,  some  day,  to  spoil  your 
game  by  rushing  from  this  place  and  giving  Myself  up  ! 
You  don't  want  me  to  do  that.  Your  power  would  end 
then,  and  I  should  be  less  in  the  devil's  hands  than  I  am 
now !" 

"  Geoffrey  Dapple  !"  exclaimed  Doctor  Canary,  vehe- 
mently, "  you  must  be  quite  a  lunatic,  to  twist  what  I 
have  said  into  that  shape.  I  hadn't  the  slightest  idea  of 
reminding  you  of  anything  known  to  me.  The  man  with 
the  cloak  and  the  woman  with  the  veil  are  real  people,  and 
have  some  secret  purpose  with  reference  to  something,  or 
somebody,  in  this  house.  Were  I  the  father  of  your 
daughter,  I  should  certainly  take  pains  to  find  out  what 
they  meant ; — that  is,  if  I  did  not  know  them.  A  beau- 
tiful girl  in  humble  life,  in  a  city  like  this, — " 

u  She's  nothing  to  you !" 

"  Nothing,  of  course,  partner,  but  an  object  of  sincere 
respect  and  admiration.  As  for  the  policeman,  he  is  the 
same  who  helped  you  to  recover  your — But  here's  Miss 
Dapple." 

Dollie  coining  back  from  Lardner  Place,  and  with  her 
eyes  downcast  in  troubled  thought,  did  not  see  Doctor 
Canary  until  he  stepped  aside  from  the  doorway  to  let 
her  pass  into  the  room,  and  answered  his  "  Home  again  ?" 
with  an  abstracted  little  nod.    He  waited  long  enough  in 


A   CONVERT    FROM    RASCALITY.  151 

their  view  to  see  the  daughter  kiss  the  paternal  cheek, 
which  seemed  neither  to  invite  nor  repel;  then  paced 
with  folded  arms  to  the  street-door  of  the  store,  looked 
moodily  out  upon  the  bustling  and  darkening  thorough- 
fare for  a  few  moments,  and  finally  ignited  the  lamp  over 
the  only  desk  in  the  place.  The  Muse  was  at  him 
again,  and,  with  quill  oft-fluttering  undecidedly  in  air,  he 
perpetrated  still  another  show-card — 

"A  doll  that's  broken  by  the  wear  and  tear 
Of  various  handling  by  the  rude  and  fair, 
Is  hereby  offer'd  at  so  low  a  price, 
That*  you  may  purchase  without  thinking  twice. 
Not  badly  injured  ;  for  the  break's  so  slight 
A  little  handiwork  would  set  it  right  ; 
And  we  might  mend  it  of  ourselves,  and  sell 
At  price  the  earlier, — it  would  Look  as  well. 
But  there's  the  prejudice  !    You'd  scarce  allow 
That  any  value  is  its  portion  now  : 
The  thing's  scarce  worthy  taking  home,  you  croak  ; 
It's  whole  at  present,  but  it  has  been  broke  !  " 

It  may  occur  to  the  hypercritical,  that  the  ex-Odonto- 
lator's  verse  was  occasionally  of  a  rather  saturnine  flavor 
for  the  usually-feeble  literary  tastes  of  toy-buyers ;  but 
the  great  point  of  such  things  depends  principally  upon 
their  unlikeness  to  anything  of  the  kind  before  attempt- 
ed; and  surely  no  other  toy-store  in  the  city  ever 
dreamed  of  pointing  its  toys  with  such  excruciating 
morals.  If  a  rash  infant-visitor  induced  parent,  or  at- 
tendant, to  read  a  particularly  depressing  card  aloud, 
and  was  thereupon  thrown  into  such  unwholesome  melan- 
choly that  nothing  but  a  drum  would  suffice  to  bring 
cheerfulness  again,  the  store  sold  an  instrument  of  mili- 
tary music,  and  dwelt  loudly  in  the  infant's  mind  for 


152  A   CONVERT   FROM   RASCALITY. 

ever  after  as  the  place  whither  you  could  not  take  him 
without  being  absolutely  compelled  to  buy  him  a  toy. 

Orlonzo  Goggle  had  been  much  chastened  in  mind  by 
some  of  the  earlier  cards,  as  was  hinted  in  its  place,  and 
upon  arriving  to  put  up  the  shutters  on  this  occasion, 
pondered  for  some  moments  over  the  latest  Moral  in  the 
window. 

"  Well,  boy,  how  does  that  suit  you  ?"  asked  the  poet. 

"  Oh,  donH  you  sling  a  quill,  some !"  expatiated  the 
critical  youth,  winking  affably  with  all  one  side  of  his 
face,  and  rolling  his  head  in  an  encouraging  manner. 
"  DonH  you  sock  it  to  'em  gay !  If  you  was  to  jerk  one 
of  them  air  sick  old  songs  into  a  newspaper,  wouldn't 
the  old  tiles  as  reads  them  blow  their  bugles  ?  You  bet 
yer !"  And  the  child  thrust  a  finger  inside  his  cheek 
and  produced  a  sound  like  the  discharge  of  a  cork. 

Strongly  suspecting  that  this  remarkable  opinion  con- 
tained more  or  less  of  that  free  sarcasm  which  the  able 
journals  of  the  day  delight  to  lavish  upon  such  new 
books  of  poetry  as  have  not  been  advertised  in  their 
columns,  Dr.  Canary  gently  lifted  the  appreciative  youth 
with  his  right  foot,  as  a  slight  hint  that  shutting-np  time 
had  arrived  in  a  double  sense,  and  then  withdrew  to  the 
back-room,  where  the  evening  meal  awaited  him. 

For  a  man  of  marked  social  instincts ;  for  a  gentleman 
inclined  to  relieve  the  act  of  eating  with  conversational 
graces ;  the  parental  and  filial  personalities  of  that  par- 
ticular tea-table  were  not,  at  first  view,  cheering.  The 
father,  with  his  working  apron  still  on,  had  an  elbow 
upon  the  edge  of  the  little  household  board,  and  rested 
his  brow  on  the  upraised  hand  in  such  semi-devotional 
hiding,  that  he  might  have  been  either  silently  invoking 
Heaven,  or  concentrating  a  headache.      The  daughter, 


A   CONVERT    FEOM   RASCALITY.  158 

presiding  in  her  usual  place  over  a  trio  of  cups  and  sau- 
cers and  a  small  family  of  obese  French  china  tea-things, 
wore  a  troubled  absent  look,  not  encouraging  to  the  bold- 
est talker.  In  short,  Dr.  Canary  saw  immediately  that  a 
silent  meal  was  the  entertainment  proposed,  and — in- 
stantly resolved  to  alter  the  programme. 

"  Miss  Dollie,"  he  said,  fairly  compelling  the  girl  to 
meet  his  eye,  as  she  handed  the  tea,  by  the  very  keenness 
of  his  glance,  "  I  have  been  trying  again,  this  afternoon, 
to  make  friends  with  your  father,  and  he  has  snubbed  me 
worse  than  ever.  Upon  my  word,  I  don't  think  I  deserve 
it ;  and  upon  my  word,  I  sha'n't  give  up  yet !  We 
might  be  a  thoroughly  cosy  little  family  here  as  well  as 
not ;  and  why  can't  we  ?  We  are  thrown  together  every 
hour  in  the  day,  and  what  is  the  use  of  all  this  continual 
glumness  ?" 

Dollie  nervously  busied  herself  with  the  sugar-bowl, 
and  the  Toyman  pretended  to  cut  something  on  his  plate. 

"  Mr.  Dapple,"  continued  the  speaker,  turning  sud- 
denly to  him,  "  do  you  wish  me  to  clear  out  ?  Say  the 
word,  and,  from  this  hour,  you  shall  never  see  my  face 
again ! " 

He  certainly  meant  it.  There  was  no  mistaking  the 
honest  expression  of  his  countenance  at  that  moment, 
and  the  daughter  looked  furtively  at  his  profile  in  expec- 
tant perplexity ;  but  Geoffrey  Dapple  regarded  him  with 
a  fitful  stare  in  which  dislike,  suspicion,  and  craven  fear, 
alternately  appeared ;  and  finally  answered,  with  eyes 
cast  down  again  : — 

st  We  only  ask  you  to  pay  no  heed  to  us  at  all." 

"  And  what  do  you  say,  Miss  Dollie  ?  " 

"  I  have  no  right  to  say  anything." 

"  But  will  you  answer  me  one  question  ? " 
7* 


154  A   CONVERT   FROM   RASCALITY. 

"  I  can  not  promise,  Dr.  Canary." 

"You  think  that  I  hold  your  father,  here,  in  my 
power  ? " 

"  Yes." 

"  Now  that  is  frank,  and  I  like  it,"  said  he,  giving  all 
his  attention  to  her,  and  paying  no  heed  to  her  father's 
quick  ejaculation.  "  I'll  be  as  frank  with  you,  my  girl. 
Mr.  Dapple  is  no  more  in  my  power  for  harm,  than  I  am 
in  his !  I  have  merely  played  a  trick  upon  him,  working 
upon  his  own  exaggeration  of  circumstances  which  really 
amounted  to  nothing  at  all.  A  rascally  trick,  I  admit, 
but  nothing  more  than  a  trick.  He  thinks  that  I 
know — " 

"  For  God's  sake —  !"  shrieked  the  Toyman,  half  rising 
from  his  chair,  and  clasping  his  hands  toward  his  tor- 
mentor in  agonized  appeal. 

Dollie  stared  from  one  to  the  other  in  confused 
affright. 

"  I  am  determined  to  finish  what  I  have  to  say,  this 
time,"  exclaimed  Doctor  Canary,  smiting  the  table  with 
impatient  hand  and  showing  scarcely  less  agitation  than 
his  companion, — "  I'll  make  a  clean  breast  of  it  this 
time, — and  no  one  will  be  hurt  by  it  but  myself.  I  say 
that  you,  Mr.  Dapple,  think  I  know  of  that  against  you, 
which,  if  blazoned  abroad,  would  bring  you  to — to  grief. 
As  surely  as  I  worked  upon  that  delusion  to  get  for 
myself  a  home  and  a  living  here,  just  so  surely  it  is  a 
delusion  !  I  solemnly  swear  here  before  both  of  you, 
that  nothing  which  I  could  prove,  or  even  truthfully  tell, 
of  Geoffrey  Dapple,  would  harm  him.  What  is  more, 
partner," — and  he  once  more  smote  the  table — "  I  am 
fully  convinced  that  all  your  self-accusation  is  groundless 
• — purely  the  morbid  effect  of  nervous  disease." 


A  CONVERT  FROM  RASCALITY.  155 

The  effect  of  this  partially  incomprehensible  speech 
was  startling :  Dollie,  pale  and  breathless,  seemed  to 
drink  every  word  with  her  eyes,  until  the  latter  alter- 
nately clouded  and  flamed  with  their  terrors  or  hope  ; 
and  her  father,  after  shaking  like  one  in  a  palsy,  dropped 
his  head  upon  his  outspread  arms  and  broke  into  convul- 
sive sobs. 

u  I  have  j>racticed  a  trick  upon  yon,  aided  by  the  self- 
delusion  written  on  your  own  face,  I  say,"  continued  the 
strange  mortal,  his  voice  growing  shrill  with  excitement. 
"  I  was  in  desperate  circumstances ;  I  had  been  born  a 
gentleman,  and  was  being  forced  into  the  lowest  degra- 
dation of  a  mountebank ;  misfortune,  folly  and  misery, 
had  made  a  temporary  rascal  of  me  at  last ;  and  your 
face  and  what  it  recalled,  as  you  stood  by  the  wagon  in 
the  Square  that  afternoon,  put  the  devil's-trick  into  my 
head.  I've  felt  fit  for  a  halter  every  day  I've  been  here — 
every  hour,  every  minute ;  and  if  I  haven't  confessed 
until  now,  I've  at  least  worked  like  a  horse  to  increase 
your  business  and  make  myself  worth  more  than  any 
honest  partner  you  can  get.  No  use  to  make  any  farther 
pretence  of  eating,  this  night,"  he  added,  rising  hastily 
from  the  unheeded  table ;  none  of  us  feel  like  that,  now  ! 
I'll  go  up  to  my  own  room ;  but,  before  going,  I  resign  the 
partnership  which  I  have  gained  by  the  one,  only,  real 
rascality  of  an  unfortunate  life.  I  should  like  to  stay 
with  you  still,  if  you'll  keep  me,  as  a  clerk.  I've  taken 
only  clerk's  wages  out  of  the  business  so  far,  as  you 
know,  and  shall  be  satisfied  with  still  less,  if  you  will  let 
me  remain.  Enough  said.  I'll  go  up-stairs  now." — And 
he  went. 

Left  alone,  father  and  daughter  neither  moved  nor 
spoke  for  several  moments.     What  She  had  heard  was  so 


156  ONE   OF    THE   THREE    COMES    E\\ 

strange,  so  incredible,  so  charged,  seemingly,  with,  things 
and  results  darkly  belonging  to  some  other  life  than  hers, 
that  her  senses  still  refused  to  accept  more  than  one 
reality  as  proved  —  the  final  honesty  of  Dr.  Canary. 
What  the  Toyman  had  heard  was  at  first  the  breathing 
of  a  wild,  vague  hope,  and  at  last. 

As  he  raised  his  head  from  his  arms,  Dollie  spoke : 

"  Father,  I  believe  him." 

u  Then  his  last  trick — Grant,  merciful  Heaven,  I  may 
not  think  too  much  of  it  while  he  sleeps  ! — is  more  dev- 
ilish than  the  first." 


XIX. 

ONE    OF    THE    THREE    COMES    IN. 

WHEN  they  met  at  breakfast  next  morning,  the 
old  Toyman  was  grim  and  lowering,  as  though 
the  scene  of  the  last  night  had  never  occurred  ;  and 
the  girl's  listless  air  and  heavy  eyes  proved  how  little 
that  scene  had  conduced  to  give  her  restful  sleep ;  but 
Canary  was  as  brisk  as  any  bird  of  his  name,  and  an- 
nounced that  he  should  go  down  town  that  morning  to 
order  certain  additions  needed  for  their  holiday-stock. 
Not  seeming  to  be  at  all  troubled  this  time  by  the  unso- 
ciable bearing  of  the  others,  he  talked  glibly  of  nearly 
everything  in  the  toy  line,  without  appearing  to  expect 
anything  more  than  occasional  monosyllabic  answers  ; 
though  it  was  noticeable  that  he  no  longer  used  the  word 
"partner,"  and  really  made  no  more  show  of  indepen- 


ONE  OF  THE  THEEE  COMES  IN.  157 

dent  authority  than  might  have  rightly  pertained  to  an 
energetic  head-clerk.  Indeed,  he  said  :  ,%  I'm  your  clerk, 
now,  Mr.  Dapple  and  Daughter,  and  mean  to  see  if  I 
can't  make  the  old  Store  renew  its  youth  for  the  coming 
Christmas.  With  your  consent  I'll  get  a  few  evergreens 
to  trim  the  window,  the  sign,  and  the  shelves  ;  and  we'll 
arrange  a  Christmas-party  of  dolls  on  the  table  near  the 
window.     Do  you  approve  the  idea,  Miss  Dapple  I" 

u  It  would  be  very  nice,"  was  the  girlish  and  quite 
gracious  answer  ;  for  Dollie  couldn't  help  it. 

"  Upon  my  word,  I  wish  the  "Walking  Doll  could  be 
ready  this  year,"  added  the  new  clerk,  with  a  questioning 
glance  at  the  still  sullen  Toyman.  u  I  could  celebrate  her 
pedestrianism  in  such  a  poem  as  I've  never  scribbled  yet." 

If,  by  being  absent  that  morning,  he  designed  giving 
them  a  farther  chance  to  discuss  his  eligibility  as  clerk, 
or  according  the  parent  an  opportunity  to  receive  those 
three  mysterious  haunters  of  the  show-window  who,  as 
he  had  said,  seemed  to  consider  him  an  obstacle  to  the 
nearer  revelation  of  themselves,  his  speedy  departure  for 
a  tour  of  the  wholesale  toy-repositories  in  Maiden  Lane 
did  not  answer  either  purpose.  Scarcely  had  he  gained 
the  street,  when  Geoffrey  began  donning,  in  feverish 
haste,  his  own  old  overcoat ;  shaking  his  head  and  mut- 
tering, the  while,  like  one  grievously  stirred. 

"  Are  you  going,  too  ?"  asked  Dollie,  disappointedly  ; 
for  she  had  faintly  hoped  that  he  would  let  her  improve 
the  opportunity  of  their  being  alone  once  more  to  gain 
more  from  his  confidence. 

"  I  must  follow  him,*,  returned  the  broken  man,  not 
looking  at  her.  "  I  most  know  what  he  is  about."  And 
before  she  could  speak  again  he  hurried  into  the  st^re, 
and  so  to  the  street. 


158  ONE  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IN. 

Poor  Dollie  !  In  a  state  of  mind  between  aggravation 
and  despair,  she  washed  and  cleared  the  table-equipage 
spiritlessly  enough ;  and  then,  after  waiting  upon  a  few 
customers,  took  her  doll-dress  sewing  to  her  own  chair 
behind  the  counter,  and  there  gave  herself  up  to  all  the 
vagaries  of  meditation  consistent  with  the  needle.  She 
was  surprised  to  find  how  much  comfort  seemed  to  grow 
from  Doctor  Canary's  attribution  of  her  father's  myste- 
rious change  of  nature  to  nervous  disease  ;  and  the  more 
she  thought  of  either  man,  the  stronger  grew  an  unreas- 
oning inclination  within  her  to  be  rather  thankful  than 
otherwise  that  Canary  was  to  return  again.  If  the  mys- 
tery between  them,  whether  a  delusion  or  a  reality,  must 
still  remain  an  unexplained  terror  to  her,  she  would  pre- 
fer having  a  third  person  with  them  in  their  home, — her 
father's  and  her's — to  save  it  from  entire  reserve,  or  reti- 
cence. As  a  quarrel  in  a  family  often  makes  the  presence 
of  an  otherwise  indifferent  visitor  curiously  acceptable 
to  either  side,  so  the  company  even  of  Dr.  Canary  was 
now  regarded  by  her,  in  the  light  of  what  she  had  re- 
cently seen  and  heard,  as  preferable  to  his  absence,  both 
for  herself  and  her  father.  She  believed  that  she  could 
foresee  in  its  farther  continuation  a  farther  fulness  of 
paternal  confidence,  if  only  from  the  probable  ultimate 
necessities  of  the  situation  ;  and,  besides, — if  it  must  be 
confessed, — there  wras  an  intuitive  instinct  far  down  in 
her  woman's  nature,  which,  despite  all  refuting  circum- 
stances, extended  a  kind  of  soft,  sympathetic  charity  to 
the  ex-mountebank  for  his  own  sake  ! 

"  Father  has  never  been  himself  since  that  dreadful 
sickness,"  thought  Dollie,  "  and  I  was  crying  half  the 
night  to  think  that  he  might  be  going  crazy.  What 
could  he  mean  by  saying  that  the  '  last  trick  '  was  worse 


ONE    OF    THE   THREE   COMES    IX.  159 

than'  i  the  first,'  and  praying  that  he  might  not  think  too 
much  of  it  while  Dr.  Canary  was  asleep  ?  His  look  is  so 
dreadful  sometimes,  and — Oh,  my  !  "Who's  that  ?" 

In  truth,  that  which  suddenly  caught  her  eye  as  she 
glanced  disconsolately  up  from  her  work  for  an  instant, 
was  quite  remarkable  enough  to  justify  the  exclamatory 
break  in  her  meditations. 

Pressed  closely  against  an  outer  pane  of  the  show-win- 
dow, was  a  human  countenance,  rendered  fierce  and 
foreign  by  moustache,  bone  eyeglasses,  and  a  prodigious 
slouched  hat,  and  projecting  from  a  funeral  peak  of 
Spanish  cloak,  like  an  over-balanced,  fantastical  kind  of 
ball  from  the  summit  of  some  black  kind  of  fountain. 
The  prominent  features  were  not  exactly  beautified  by 
being  mashed  into  startling  and  discolored  conglomeration 
against  the  glass,  in  their  owner's  ardor  to  see  as  far 
through  the  building  as  possible  ;  yet  Miss  Dapple  quick- 
ly recognized  that  owner,  and  was  disposed  to  faint. 

Apparently  Mr.  Aster  had  become  satisfied,  by  this 
time,  that  no  other  than  she  animated  the  establishment ; 
for  he  at  once  walked  in  with  a  forbidding  air,  and  pre- 
sented himself  at  the  counter  before  her. 

"  I  wish,  young  woman,"  said  he,  gruffly,  and  twirled 
his  moustache  in  a  darkling  manner,  M  to  procure  such  a 
doll  as  will  immediately  poison  an  up-stairs  family's  infant 
the  moment  its  head  is  drawn  into  the  infant  mouth.  A 
small  one  of  wax,  enamelled  with  strychnine,  will  suit  my 
finances,  and  rid  a  distracted  neighborhood  of  a  howling 
young  wilderness." 

"  Mr.  Aster !"  said  Dollie. 

"  Ha !  Do  you  recognize  me  ?"  exclaimed  he,  glancing 
quickly  around  the  store,  with  a  rather  startled  demean- 
or.    "  Then,  if  the  old  gentleman  is  around,  I'm  lost !" 


160  ONE  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IS". 

"If  you  mean  Father,  he's  out,"  returned  Dollie  brid- 
ling. 

"Then  come  to  my  arms,  my  darling!"  cried  Mr.  As- 
ter, twirling  himself  over  the  counter  by  a  hand-spring 
of  the  most  agile  description,  and  gathering  the  fair  one 
into  such  a  wild  suffocation  of  cloak  and  big  hat  that 
only  the  back  of  her  head  was  visible  to  the  scandalized 
dolls  on  the  shelves. 

"  Mr.  Aster  !  Leave  me  alone,  sir !"  came  a  choking 
voice  from  the  engulfing  waves.  "  Let  me  go  this  mo- 
ment !"  And  Dollie  tore  herself  from  him,  and  uplifted 
a  face  glowing  with  indignation. 

"Sold  again!"  ejaculated  the  young  man,  apparently 
undergoing  the  miracle  of  being  abashed.  "  Some  other 
has  wooed  you  and  you  have  bestowed  on  a  wealthier 
suitor  your  hand."  And  with  a  reversed  hand-spring,  he 
wTas  sitting  on  the  other  edge  of  the  counter  again. 

"  I  want  you  to  be-iiAVE  !"  exclaimed  the  flushed  girl, 
laying  resentful  stress  on  the  last  sylable. 

"  Ah  !  you  do  ?  How  much  for  this  doll  ?"  asked  Aster, 
ferociously  seizing  the  nearest  miniature  of  extreme  fash- 
ion.—" But  you  needn't  tell  me,  for  I  see  Two  dollars 
marked  on  the  feet.  Now  then,  Woman  !  do  you  know 
what  you've  done  ?  Only  broken  a  man's  heart — that's 
all.  Shall  he  expire;  and  unavenged?  Arouse,  ye 
Goths,  and  glut  your  ire !"  And  he  twisted  the  doll's 
head  off.  "Now,  you  othei  Woman,  I'm  better  than  I 
was,  and  here's  your  two  dollars." 

This  terrific  little  drama  of  woman's  infidelity  and 
man's  revenge  so  frightened  Miss  Dapple,  that  she  took 
the  proffered  "  greenback  "  as  though  it  had  a  handle, 
and  began  fanning  herself  with  it. 

"  By  the  great  boots !"  soliloquized  Mr.  Aster,  what 


ONE  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IN.  161 

time  lie  tore  the  doll  limb  from  limb,  "  when  I  think  of 
the  times  I've  fluttered  around  that  window  like  a  pensive 
carrier-dove,  and  the  number  of  times  I've  allowed  my- 
self to  be  driven  off  by  him  whom  I  now  take  to  be  my 
successful  rival,  I  feel  like  going  and  erecting  myself  in 
Central  Park  as  a  colossal  statue  of  Love  Sold  at  a  Sacri- 
fice." 

"  I  didn't  know  you'd  been  here  before,"  said  Dollie, 
shyly. 

"By  an  extraordinary  oversight,  I  forgot  to  leave  my 
card,"  observed  J.  Aster,  loftily. 

"  You  behaved  so  strangely  in  Lardner  Place — " 

"Hay?" 

Such  was  the  concussion  of  the  atmosphere  upon  the 
explosion  of  this  lightning-syllable,  that  four  dolls  in  chairs 
fell  over  on  their  noses,  and  a  mechanical  toy  representing 
a  monkey-fiddler  was  started  into  immediate  agonies  of 
musical  improvisation. 

"  Dear !"  ejaculated  the  startled  Miss  Dapple.  "  What 
have!  done?     I  forgot." 

Mr.  Aster  had  turned  toward  her  so  far  that  his  right 
leg,  which  was  quite  a  Map  of  the  World  for  patches,  de- 
scribed an  obtuse  angle  on  the  counter,  and  his  bone  eye- 
glasses looked  suspiciously  at  her,  with  two  dolls  and  a 
drum  reflected  in  them  from  the  shelf  at  her  back. 

"  Dollie,  you  know  the  latest  Wrong  against  me  ?" 

"As  true  as  I  live,  John,  I  didn't  mean  to  mention  it." 

"  Your  Paternal  told  you?" 

"My  Father?" 

"Yes — It  was  his  watch,  you  know?" 

The  fair  one  had  been  inclining  more  and  more  toward 
him,  of  late ;  but  now  she  drew  back,  as  from  a  sling, 
and  surveyed  the  whole  cloak-part  of  him  with  fear  and 


162  ONE  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IN. 

trembling.  She  thought  of  her  sire's  return  home  with 
the  watch ;  of  the  discovery ;  of  the  story  of  its  recovery, 
and  the  Toyman's  paroxysm  of  terror  thereafter.  Then 
she  approached  again,  and  actually  placed  a  hand  on  the 
cloak  in  her  new  earnestness. 

"John,"  she* whispered,  pleadingly,  "my  father  has 
been  a  different  man — a  crazy  man,  almost, — ever  since 
that  day  of  the  watch.  He  did  not  recollect  your  name 
in  telling  me  about  it ;  but  now  I  remember  that  when 
he  described  the — the — sailor,  I  thought  he  must  have 
looked  like  you.  Oh,  John!  will  you  answer  me  one 
question  ?" 

"  Yes ;  especially  if  it's  :  '  Wilt  thou  take  this  woman 
to  be  thy'—"  . 

"  Oh,  John  !  who  did  you  steal  that  watch  from  ?" 

"Hay?" 

Mr.  Aster  enunciated  this  with  such  shot-like  sharp- 
ness, that  Dollie  jumped  as  though  nearly  assassinated 
with  a  pin,  and  several  picturesque  jumping-Jacks  sus- 
pended from  a  cord  over  their  heads  faintly  kicked  at 
each  other. 

"Gracious  me!  *  *  *  My  heart's  in  my  throat! 
*  *  *  I  remember,  now,  it  was  put  into  your  pocket, 
but  you  didn't  steal  it.  I  shouldn't  have  mentioned  it  at 
all." 

The  lenses  of  the  bone  eyeglasses, — which  now  reflected 
a  Noah's  ark  and  a  company  of  soldiers, — were  seen  to  be 
foggy  with  emotion,  and  their  deeply-injured  wearer's 
proud  head  sank  slowly  upon  his  breast  until  his  Spanish 
cloak  and  hat  looked  like  a  huge  black  cloud  with  a  rag- 
ged black  sun  arising  from  it. 

"I  am  the  unhappiest  mortal  on  all  this  planet,  I  do 
believe  !"  he  growled  sullenly.     "  Outcast  from  a  father's 


ONE    OF   THE   TIIEEE    COMES    IX.  103 

house,  suspected  by  everybody  of  picking  pockets,  travel- 
ing around  in  deep  disguise,  and  received  coolly  by  my 
sweetheart  after  years  of  absence,  I  feel  just  fit  to  apply 
the  torch  of  the  incendiary  to  myself  with  my  own  hand, 
and  expire  in  my  own  ashes." 

"  Now,  John,"  murmured  Dollie,  growing  kinder, 
"don't  go  on  in  that  way.  I  don't  understand  about 
you;  but  I  haven't  meant  to  treat  you  coolly." 

"  You  scorn  me,  because  I  am — Poor !"  moaned  Mr. 
Aster  ;  intending  to  curl  his  lip  contemptuously,  but  fail- 
ing signally;  and  making  a  horrible  face  instead,  on  ac- 
count of  a  sudden  crarnp  in  the  foot  which  he  had  par- 
tially folded  under  him  upon  the  counter. 

"Not  for  a  moment !"  returned  the  maiden,  energeti- 
cally. "  Can  you  believe  that  I  think  the  less  of  you  for 
misfortunes  which  you  can  not  help?  Why,  I  would 
think  it  nobler,  tomorrow,  to  ride  with  you  upon  your 
dray " 

"Hat?" 

The  jar  of  the  sound,  and  Miss  Dapple's  involuntary 
jump,  together,  started  the  wheels  in  a  mechanical  mouse 
on  the  corner  of  the  counter,  causing  it  to  scamper  fran- 
tically to  the  floor,  with  a  suppressed  whirring  noise,  and 
shoot  around  there  in  a  head-bumping  manner. 

"  Mercy  on  rne  !"  panted  Dolly.  "  I  didn't  mean  to  ! 
You're  so  proud  and  sensitive,  and  I  don't  know  what, 
that  it's  dangerous  to  speak  to  you  about  anything  at 
all." 

Aster  scratched  his  head  in  a  dreamy  manner,  and 
either  looked  puzzled,  or  slightly  squinted. 

"  You're  so  figurative  in  some  of  your  expressions,  my 
dear, — I  suppose  it  comes  from  having  all  these  cards  of 
poetry  around  you — that  my  mind  wanders  a  little  in  the 


1CA  ONE    OF    THE    THREE    COMES    ESV 

agonies  of  our  conversation,"  lie  said,  vaguely.  "  But 
let  me  ask  you  if  that  document  of  mine  is  all  safe  ?" 

"  It's  still  up  in  the  curtain,  John." 

"  Never  moved  since  ?" 

"No.  That  curtain  is  never  touched  by  any  hand. 
That  is  why  I  put  the  Will  there.     It  couldn't  be  safer." 

"  Dollie,"  said  Mr.  Aster,  with  sudden  languor  of  tone 
and  look,  "  I  am  convinced  that  you  are  true  to  me,  and 
would  fain  sip  a  kiss.  Dollie,  my  pretty  one,  you're 
prettier  than  ever,  and — "  here  he  leaned  so  lengthily  to 
pursue  his  face  that  he  was  almost  flat  upon  the  counter, 
— "  and  I  must  pluck  a  rosebud  kiss  before  I'm  a  mo- 
ment older." 

While  struggling  with  the  coy  beauty  for  his  inestim- 
able prerogative  as  a  lover,  he  could  not  have  been  aware 
of  the  remarkable  foreshortening  presented  by  his  prone, 
patched,  and  cloaked  figure  to  the  eye  of  any  person  en- 
tering from  the  street — especially  as  he  had  raised  and 
was  swaying  one  heelless  boot  in  the  air  in  the  ecstacy 
of  the  combat.  Geoffrey  Dapple  had  come  in,  and 
reached  his  side,  before  he  realized  the  peril  of  such 
abandonment. 

"  Daughter !"  exclaimed  the  Toyman,  sternly.  u  What 
does  this  mean  ?     Who  is  this  ?" 

Miss  Dapple,  in  a  pitiable  flutter,  introduced  Mr. 
Aster  as  he  still  lay  prone  upon  the  counter ;  and,  while 
the  young  man  made  an  effort  to  dissipate  all  unfavorable 
impressions  by  an  intense  fit  of  coughing,  and  endeavored 
to  render  his  descent  to  the  floor  dignified  by  certain 
tragic  scufflings  witk  his  feet,  the  father  keenly  scrutin- 
ized his  features. 

u  Aster  ? — Aster  V  queried  Geoffrey,  repeating  the 
name  and  scowling  from  under  his  shaggy  brows  at  its 


MRS.  DEDLEY  CAN  NOT  FORGET.  165 

bearer.    "  "Why  ! — You  must  be  the  sailor  that —  Where 
did  you  get  that  watch  f" 

— It  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  Mr.  Aster  did  not  pause 
to  answer  this  rather  personal  question  :  but,  with  his 
bone  eyeglasses — which  now  reflected  a  box  of  blocks 
and  half  a  dozen  cornelian  rattles —  trained  with  terrible 
magnetic  power  upon  the  old  man's  middle  feature,  re- 
tired backward  to  the  door,  as  from  some  high-stepping 
theatrical  ghost,  aud  disappeared  down  the  street. 


XX. 

MRS.    DEDLEY   CAN   NOT  FORGET. 

THE  human  mind,  as  purified  and  elevated  by  the  en- 
nobling uses  of  pecuniary  adversity,  has  a  curiously 
keen  perception  for  the  shallow  follies  of  the  wealthy, 
and  a  manly  contempt  of  the  newly  rich  man's  wretched 
social  devices.  Mark  the  possessor  of  this  purified  mind, 
when,  with  hands  in  his  blue  overall  pockets,  he  is  oblig- 
ed to  defer  momentarily  his  further  inspection  of  some 
neat  cloud-effect  from  the  middle  of  a  street,  in  order 
that  a  nabob's  gaudy  carnage  may  get  by.  You  shall 
read  in  his  frank  countenance,  on  that  occasion,  such  im- 
mediate penetration  of  the  rider's  real,  unworthy  charac- 
ter, such  indignant  superiority  to  any  wish  for  a  crested 
vehicle  of  his  own,  as  must  give  you  new  ideas  of  the 
deep-seeing  and  unaffected  manliness  of  such  a  mind. 
Follow  that  same  incisive  mind  into  the  household,  and 


166  MRS.  DEDLEY  CAN  NOT  FORGET. 

observe  Iioav  infallibly  and  instantly  it  detects  the  richly 
vulgar  Snob,  as  distinguished  from  the  True  Gentleman 
of  its  own  acquaintance,  by  the  simple  test  of  that  spuri- 
ous person's  greater  fondness  for  coat  and  pantaloons  of 
the  period,  and  for  visiting-cards  engraved  instead  of 
printed  in  colors.  These  things  stagger  the  skeptic 
whose  creed  it  is  that  the  finest  of  minds  may  err  at 
times.  They  stagger  him  so  badly,  that  a  policeman  of 
hasty  judgment  might  almost  arrest  him  for  gross  intoxi- 
cation ;  yet,  withal,  this  piercing  mind,  dexterous  in  re- 
velation as  it  is,  still  belongs  to  the  list  of  merely  human 
gifts  ;  and,  so  belonging,  sometimes  does  a  little  injustice 
to  the  subject  of  its  analysis. 

For  instance ;  because  the  elder  Mr.  Aster  had  devoted 
a  number  of  his  early  years  to  the  wholesale  Soap  business, 
this  mind  came  near  tearing  its  hair  over  his  subsequent 
setting-up  of  a  carriage  and  pair  ;  and  exhibited  what,  in 
any  other  mind,  would  have  been  taken  for  dark  malig- 
nity, when  still '  later,  or  upon  his  first  marriage,  he 
adopted  a  crest.  Finally,  when  he  added  a  monogram, 
which  resembled  the  skeleton  of  some  strange  beetle  and 
has  been  noted  as  appearing  (with  the  crest)  even  on  his 
misjudged  son's  draying  card,  the  same  merciless  mind 
sneered  to  such  an  extent  that  the  True  Gentleman  of  its 
acquaintance  suspected  dyspepsia,  and  proposed  a  couple 
of  glasses  of  hot  rum,  with  ginger. 

Now  the  elder  Aster  was  not  a  bit  of  a  Snob,  in  him- 
self: unlike  the  infatuated  Lardner,  he  gave  all  his  ideas 
and  opinions,  as  an  intellectual  being,  to  the  business  he 
understood — to  Soap  :  the  carriage  rested  heavily  on  his 
soul  as  a  kind  of  top-heavy  contrivance  into  which  he,  or 
his  wife,  was  compelled  to  go  as  ballast  whenever  the 
coachman  felt  like  enjoying  a  drive ;  and  he  never  looked 


MRS.  DEDLEY  CAN  NOT  FORGET.  167 

at  his  crest  and  monogram  without  sighing  to  think  what 
neat  stamps  they  would  make  for  a  first-class  article  in 
Shaving  Soap.  In  short,  the  coach,  crest,  monogram,  and 
all  attendant  assumption  of  lordliness,  were  due  exclusive- 
ly to  the  Aster  ladies.  They  demanded  them  ;  and  the 
eminent  Soap-man,  like  many  another  husband  the  of  Let- 
us-have-peace  school,  was  scorned  by  the  purified  mind 
for  what  he  could  not  help. 

Here  we  have  a  clue  to  his  whole  character  as  it  relates 
to  this  story,  an  inferential  explanation  of  his  bondage  to 
the  second  Mrs.  Aster ;  and  all  needful  suggestion  for  such 
logical  domestic  incidents  in  a  novel  as  are  playfully 
termed  strained  and  unnatural  by  those  facetious  news- 
paper critics  whose  own  powers  of  fiction  are  chiefly 
available  for  sparkling  articles  on  Our  Daily  Circula- 
tion. 

The  henpecked  invalid  was  sleeping  heavily  in  a  huge 
pillowed  chair  before  the  fire,  and  the  nurse  had  with- 
drawn to  a  seat  by  the  further  window,  when  Mrs.  Aster 
came  softly  upstairs  from  Lunch,  and,  after  a  keen  look 
at  the  slumberer,  passed  on,  also,  to  a  chair  by  the  same 
casement. 

"  Has  he  said  anything  since  I  went  down — anything 
I  mean,  about  his  feelings  ?"  she  asked,  in  a  low  tone. 

"Just  before  falling  asleep,  Ma'am,  he  said  that  he 
wished  he  dared  ride  out  this  afternoon." 

"  Nothing  else  ?     Nothing  about  feeling  better  ?" 

"  He  seemed  quite  comfortable  still." 

"  I  am  sometimes  afraid,"  remarked  Mrs.  Aster,  as  in 
explanation,  "  that  he  speaks  of  being  better  to  me,  to  re- 
lieve my  anxiety,  when  he  really  feels  no  change." 

"  He  said,"  returned  the  nurse,  looking  gravely  at  the 
lady,  "  that  he  wished  his  brother  would  come  soon  again. 


168  MRS.  DEDLET  CAN  NOT  FORGET. 

I  think,  Ma'am,  that  his  mind  dwells  a  great  deal  upon 
Mr.  Lardner." 

UI  daresay.  You  did  not  remain  in  the  room,  I  be- 
lieve, while  Mr.  Lardner  wras  here  ?" 

"  Perhaps  I  should  have  done  so,  Ma'am,  as  you  had  a 
caUer  and  could  not  be  here  yourself." 

Something  in  the  slow,  half- questioning  manner  of  this 
reply  caused  Mrs.  Aster  to  look  more  intently  into  the 
eyes  of  the  nurse ;  and  what  she  read  there  induced  a 
change  in  her  own  manner. 

"Mrs.  Dedley,"  she  said,  leaning  forward  and  speak- 
ing more  earnestly,  "  the  peculiar  circumstances  under 
which  you  have  known  my  son,  Theodore,  and  his  espe- 
cial recommendation  of  you  to  me,  incline  me  to  treat 
you  wTith  more  confidence  than  I  could  show  to  a  stranger." 

"  Thank  you,  Mrs.  Aster;  in  my  place  I  shall  always 
be  grateful  to  every  one  related  to  Doctor  Danforth,  and 
anxious  to  merit  any  confidence  they  may  honor  me  with." 

"Have  you  ever  been  a  Mother,  Mrs.  Dedley?" 

"JSTo,  Ma'am." 

u  I  thought,"  went  on  the  lady,  after  a  brief  pause, 
"  that  you  looked  like  a  person  who  had  known  domestic 
trouble.  I  feel  sure,  at  any  rate,  that  your  present  sta- 
tion in  life  has  not  always  been  yours." 

"  I  have  not  always  been  a  nurse,"  was  the  non-com- 
mittal answer. 

"  That  is  what  I  mean,  of  course.  You  have  seen  bet- 
ter days,  and  may  be  aware,  even  from  experience,  that 
there  may  be  family  circumstances  which  can  not  be 
kept  wholly  secret  even  from  the  rarest  visitors,  and 
must,  of  course,  be  visible  to  every  one  staying  in  a  house  ; 
yet  which  no  member  of  the  family  likes  to  talk  much 
about." 


MRS.    DEDLEY   CAN    NOT   FORGET.  160 

The  speech  was  eminently  diplomatic,  and  would  have 
meant  nothing  if  the  conversation  had  ended  there ;  but 
Mrs.  Dedley — probably  from  past  observation — saw  the 
true  drift  of  it  immediately,  and  replied  in  such  terms  as 
to  open  the  way  for  further  confidence. 

"  Yes,  Ma'am,  I  know  that  very  well.  Xhe  sick  and 
healthy,  alike,  have  need  to  be  guarded  against  talking 
too  much  of  family  matters,  or  being  talked  to  of 
them." 

"  I  see  that  you  understand  me,"  said  Mrs.  Aster, 
glancing  toward  her  husband's  chair.  "The  sick,  how- 
ever, are  approachable  to  designing  persons,  where  the  well 
are  not ;  and  there  are  often  reasons  why  an  invalid's  best 
friends  should  take  every  measure  to  protect  him,  in  his 
enfeebled  state,  both  of  body  and  mind,  from  influences 
to  which,  if  well,  he  would  not  wish  to  yield." 

''The  sick,"  responded  the  nurse,  pointedly, — "  espe- 
cially sick  rich  men, — are  often  approached  for  purposes 
that  none  would  have  the  assurance  to  suggest  to  them 
in  their  well  moments." 

For  an  instant  Mrs.  Aster  eyed  her  assistant  with 
searching  sharpness,  as  though  inclined  to  suspect  her  of 
more  specific  knowledge  in  the  immediate  premises  than 
appeared  in  what  she  had  said ;  but  the  countenance 
before  her  seemed  free  from  any  lurking  design,  and  she 
promptly  reverted  to  her  original  manner  of  matronly 
confidence. 

"  You  have  been  with  us  but  a  little  while,  Mrs.  Ded- 
ley," she  continued ;  "  yet  I  take  your  intelligence  as  a 
guarantee  that  you  have  noticed  the  care  I  take  to  guard 
Mr.  Aster  from  the  intrusions  of  certain  alienated  mem- 
bers of  his  own  family.  They  did  not  come  near  him 
while  in  health,  and  cau  have  no  better  purpose  in  com- 
8 


170  MRS.  DEDLEY  CAN  NOT  FORGET. 

ing  now  than  to  practice  impositions  for  their  own  bene- 
fit. One  of  his  two  unworthy  sons,  who  undutifully 
deserted  him  several  years  ago  and  have  entirely  disre- 
garded him  ever  since,  forced  his  way  into  this  room 
recently  and  behaved  like  a  ruffian  beside  his  father's 
sick  bed.  The  other  one  is  away  somewhere,  I  believe 
in  the  Government  service,  and  is,  probably,  no  better. 
Mr.  Lardner,  my  husband's  half-brother,  has  been  a 
stranger  to  the  whole  family  many  years,  and  only  comes 
now  to  make  interested  excuses  for  two  young  men  whose 
past  ingratitude  to  their  father  has  been  equalled  by 
nothiug  but  their  abuse  of  myself  and  my  son.  His 
daughter, — who  may,  or  may  not,  be  intended  for  the  son 
I  have  particularly  mentioned,  if  her  father's  scheme 
succeeds — is  likely  to  call  here  at  any  time  to  see  her 
'  Uncle.'  I  do  not  wish  that  even  she  should  have  oppor- 
tunities to  practice  any  of  the  family  blandishments; 
and,  as  it  may  not  be  consistent  with  my  dignity,  as 
Mr.  Aster's  Wife,  to  be  always  present  when  those  who 
come  are  unfortunately  prejudiced  persons  as  regards 
myself,  I  should  like  to  be  sure  of  your  certain  attend- 
ance in  my  stead." 

Mrs.  Dedley  had  known  perfectly  well  that  it  was 
coming  to  this,  and  received  the  whole  wintered  revela- 
tion and  commission  without  change  of  her  usually  grave 
demeanor. 

"  Mr.  Aster  may  wish  me  to  leave  the  room  at  some 
such  visit,"  she  said. 

"  He  will  not,"  was  the  deliberate  reply.  "  This  is  no 
conspiracy  against  any  wish  of  his,  Mrs.  Dedley,  and  you 
must  not  so  understand  it.  He  dreads  these  people,  in 
his  weak  state  of  health ;  and,  though  he  cannot  well 
refuse  to  see  them, — indeed  /do  not  wish  that, — is  more 


MRS.  DEDLEY  CAN  NOT  FORGET.  171 

than  willing  to  have  some  other  person  by  while  they  are 
present." 

"  Then  I  have  no  right  to  object,  Mrs.  Aster." 
The  handsome  Stepmother  leaned  an  elbow  upon  the 
window-sill,   and  turned   partially  aside  to   gaze   for   a 
while  into  the  street  below ;  but  presently  her  thoughts 
suggested  a  finishing  touch,  and  she  spoke  again. 

"  Were  you  a  Mother,  Mrs.  Dedley,  all  my  reasons  for 
this  course  might  be  plainer  to  yon.  The  unnatural 
young  man  I  have  spoken  of,  and  his  interested,  or  de- 
luded, abettors,  hate  me  without  cause,  and  would  like  to 
make  my  own  husband  a  sharer  in  the  feeling.  I  am 
determined  to  thwart  them,  while  Mr.  Aster  is  sick ! 
"When  he  gets  well  I  need  not  interfere.  On  my  own 
account  I  have  no  fear ;  but  I  have  a  babe  to  remember ; 
and  I  should  wrong  even  my  son  Theodore  were  I  to 
neglect  my  rights  and  dignity  as  the  wife  of  a  gentle- 


man." 


"  I  do  not  forget  your  son,"  said  Mrs.  Dedley,  with 
the  strong  emphasis  of  deep  feeling.  "I  will  do  any- 
thing that  can  be  asked  in  his  name." 

The  invalid  stirred  in  his  great  chair  by  the  fire, 
drowsily  calling  "  Adelaide" ;  and  the  handsome  lady 
hastened  to  bend  over  him  in  affectionate  solicitude,  as  a 
good  and  true  wife  should.  Fairer  face  could  not  have 
risen  out  of  sick  man's  dream  ;  and  who  shall  say  that  it 
was  false — to  him  ? 


172  ASTER-RISKS   ON   ICE. 


XXI. 

ASTER-RISKS    ON    ICE. 

THE  beautiful  symbolical  analogy  by  which  a  red 
ball,  suspended  from  any  convenient  projecting 
pole  by  a  string,  is  made  to  inform  the  slowest  intellect 
that  there  is  Skating  in  Central  Park,  comes,  probably, 
from  that  same  school  of  subtle  wooden  association  of 
ideas  which  evolves  a  barber  from  a  striped  stick,  and  a 
pawnbroker  from  three  gilded  spheres.  Why  the  national 
symbol  of  Japan  should  be  synonymous  with  the  asser- 
tion that  ice  has  now  attained  certain  inches  of  thickness 
in  New  York,  may  be  as  obvious  to  some  exceptionally 
similibific  minds,  as  is  the  reason  why  Mr.  Horace 
Greeley's  imperfect  education,  sympathy  with  the  slave, 
and  intense  knowledge  of  impracticable  market-garden- 
ing should  be  accepted  as  the  singularly  felicitous  combi- 
nation of  accomplishments  exactly  fitting  a  man  for 
eminence  in  Political  Economy.  In  fact,  when  even  the 
ordinary  mind  remembers  how  many  astounding  shades 
of  unexpected  signification  there  are  in  that  very  com- 
monest of  railroad-objects,  a  rheumatic  Irishman  with  a 
red  Hag,  there  would  seem  to  be  some  really  marked  as- 
sociation of  attributes  between  a  frozen-pond  and  the 
old-fashioned  sign  of  an  oyster-house. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  however,  the  "ball"  was  "up,"  and 
the  grand  Lake  of  Central  Park  swarmed  with  skaters, 
on  the  afternoon  in  December  to  which  this  chapter 
refers.     It  was  one  of  those  clear,  cold,  exhilarating  days 


ASTER-RISKS    ON   ICE.  173 

in  Winter,  at  least  a  fortnight  before  the  first  snow,  when 
sky  and  earth  both  seem  to  be  thoroughly  scoured  in  prep- 
aration for  any  elemental  entertainment  that  may  take 
place  next,  and  streets  and  roads  look  smooth  and  clean 
enough  to  make  every  horseless  man  regret  that  he  did 
not  study  for  the  livery  stable  in  early  life.  Strangely 
enough,  though,  the  opulent  in  steeds  and  chariots,  re- 
garded as  a  class,  do  not  make  their  great  efforts  on  a 
splendid  riding  day  like  this.  Through  the  Park  and  up 
Harlem  Lane  trail  the  usual  number  of  buggied  and 
sulkied  aged  men  and  preternatural  youths  with  fast 
horses  on  their  minds : — they,  it  is  believed,  are  com- 
pelled by  law  to  drive  out  in  Accommodation-Trains, 
stopping  at  all  the  bar-rooms,  on  every  afternoon  of  the 
year;  and  their  generally  embittered  expressions  of  coun- 
tenance show  how  wearing  such  legal  compulsion  must 
be  : — but  the  nabob  carriages  are  "  few  and  far  between  ;" 
and  as  for  patrons  of  the  saddle,  they  are  so  very  rare 
that  if  they  were  beefsteaks  they  would  be  sent  back  to 
the  cook. 

To  her  credit  be  it  recorded,  Miss  Lucy  Lardner  was 
no  exotic  daughter  of  a  tropical  Wall  Street  stock-broker, 
to  shrink  from  the  brilliant  air  of  such  an  afternoon  as 
this  ;  and,  mounted  upon  a  delicate  bay  thoroughbred, 
she  was  one  of  the  few  hardy  young  fashionables  looking 
down  from  saddles  upon  the  five  thousand  skaters  on  the 
Lake.  At  her  side,  and  surmounting  a  fine  grey,  was  her 
escort,  Mr.  Dinwiddie  Pamunkey,  a  heavily-whiskered 
young  Southerner,  whom  she  had  amiably  bantered  into 
service,  at  a  last-week's  party,  and  who  tried  so  hard  to 
keep  from  shivering,  that  his  words  had  the  effect  of  be- 
ing spoken  in  a  flying  railroad  train  off  the  track.  Lucy, 
in  her  long,  heavy  broadcloth  riding-habit,  picturesquely 


174:  ASTER-RISKS   ON   ICE. 

Kussian  with  rich  fur  trimming,  and  her  masculine  black 
silk  hat  modestly  veiled,  looked  like  a  pretty  picture 
from  a  French  handkerchief-box.  That  Mr.  Pamunkey 
thought  her  enchanting  was  plain  from  every  indication 
of  his  manner,  even  though  he  evidently  anticipated 
galloping  consumption  as  the  sure  penalty  of  his  ride 
with  her  in  that  Polar  atmosphere. 

"  The  yar  is  quite  an  inspiration,  I  do  de-cl'yar,"  said 
he,  his  train  going  over  a  very  sharp  tie  at  the  last  word. 
"  I  had  no  ide-y&v  that  we  should  find  it  so  pleasant  h'yar. 
Excuse  me,  though :  the  company  of  Miss  Lardner 
th'yar  would  make  it  pleasant  anywh'y'ar." 

u  Don't  try  to  be  complimentary  to-day,  Mr.  Pamun- 
key," laughed  Lucy.  "  You  look  so  cold  that  I'm  asham- 
ed of  myself  for  bringing  you  out.  That  great  white 
sheet  of  ice,  with  its  swarm  of  moving  figures,  always 
reminds  me  of  a  vast  lump  of  loaf-sugar  covered  with 
flies." 

"  Quite  an  ide-ya,r,  I  de-cl'yar !"  returned  the  gentle- 
man, secretly  wondering  where  one  of  his  ears  had  gone, 
and  privately  speculating  on  the  ultimate  chance  of  sav- 
ing a  frozen  nose.  "  Don't  be  uneasy  on  my  account, 
Miss  Lardner ;  have  no  f  'yar,  that  I  am  not  happier 
h'yar  than  I  could  possibly  be  elsewh'y'ar." 

"  Thank  you,  Sir ;  it's  quite  chivalrous  in  you  to  say 
so.     You  don't  have  winter  scenes  like  this  at  the  South." 

No  ;  not  exactly  like  it  in  every  minute  particular  :  but 
Mr.  Pamunkey  remembered  a  snow  storm  once  in  Mem- 
phis. He  remembered  it  especially,  because  he  was  there 
at  that  time  to  attend  a  fashionable  marriage  which  ter- 
minated  curiously.  vAs  the  newly  wedded  couple  were 
coming  from  the  church,  a  rejected  rival  met  the  bride- 
groom on  the  sidewalk,  and  asked  him  if  he  was  ready 


ASTER-RISKS    ON   ICE.  175 

to  stand  up  to  what  lie  Lad  done  ?  The  bridegroom  said 
he  reckoned  he  was,  and  passing  the  bride  to  ker  father, 
drew  his  loaded  Deringer.  Both  parties  then  began 
firing  across  a  handkerchief  held  by  two  groomsmen, 
and,  at  the  fourth  shot,  the  bridegroom  was  slain.  The 
bride's  father  then  shot  the  survivor,  and  was,  in  tarn, 
mortally  wounded  by  the  latter's  brother.  This  brother 
was  subsequently  stabbed  dangerously  by  a  cousin  of  the 
bride,  who  had  scarcely  done  the  deed  when  the  brother's 
nephew  brought  him  down  with  his  revolver.  An  uncle 
of  the  cousin  then  pierced  the  nephew's  heart  with  a 
sword-cane,  and,  himself,  fell  by  the  hand  of  the  neph- 
ew's stepfather ;  nor  did  the  remainder  reach  their  car- 
riages until  the  nephew's  stepfather  had  expired  under 
the  fire  of  the  cousin's  half-brother,  and  the  two  grooms- 
men had  (after  a  brief  misunderstanding)  shot  each 
other. 

While  Mr.  Pamunkey  was  relating  this,  in  his  own 
musical  Southern  patois,  their  horses  were  standing  with 
heads  pointing  over  a  leafless  hedge,  on  a  road  high  above 
the  Lake,  and  into  which  several  minor  paths  ran  at  short 
intervals.  Much  impressed  by  the  sketch,  Miss  Lardner 
was  about  to  offer  some  thoughtful  comment  upon  it, 
when  the  attention  of  both  was  suddenly  diverted  to  a 
remarkable  spectacle  slowly  emerging  from  a  cross-road 
close  at  hand.  First,  beyond  the  line  of  hedge,  appeared 
a  buckskin  horse's  head,  shaped  somewhat  like  a  fiddle- 
case  ;  the  ears  laid  flatly  back  and  one  eye  resembling  "a 
large,  imperfect  pearl.  As  this  apparition  gradually  de- 
veloped into  a  whole  steed,  a  tremendous  horse-laugh 
indicated  that  the  intelligent  animal  had  observed  the 
two  thoroughbreds  ;  yet  his  cloaked  and  dreamy  rider 
was  so  abstracted  that  he  did  not  appear  to  notice  the 


176  ASTER-RISKS    ON    ICE. 

startled  gentleman  and  lady.  At  the  tail  of  the  buck- 
skin horse,  on  foot,  and  with  a  pair  of  immense  skates 
dangling  from  his  arm,  appeared  a  squinting  and  shape- 
less child  in  a  dragging  faded  blue  military  overcoat, 
who  blew  vigorously  upon  such  of  his  finger-tips  as  could 
be  readied  in  his  enormous  sleeves,  and  sniffled  in  a  man- 
ner distressing  to  hear. 

u  I  see  you  passin'  the  car  I  was  a  ridin'  in,  Gen'ral," 
the  youth  was  saying,  "  and  an  old  file  settin'  on  the 
brake  said  you  looked  like  a  clothes-pin  on  a  line  in  a 
gale.  I  was  near  bustin'  him  in  the  eye,  on'y  he  was 
too  old  to  be  highsted." 

"  Orlonzo  !"  exclaimed  the  abstracted  rider,  his  bone 
eyeglasses  turning  slowly  toward  the  lad,  "  your  language 
is  always  disgusting.  Did  you  pay  your  fare  with  the 
torn  stamp  I  gave  you  ?" 

"You  bet  yer  !"  chuckled  the  child.  "  But  the  Con- 
ductor said  if  I  came  that  air  game  again  he'd  punch 
me.     I  played  my  points  I" 

Miss  Lardner  and  Mr.  Pamunkey  had  been  involun- 
tary and  amazed  overhearers  of  this  short  colloquy,  and 
the  latter  could  restrain  his  astonishment  no  longer. 

"  What  a  queeyar  pay-yar!"  ejaculated  he. 

"  Cousin  Jack  !"  cried  Lucy,  involuntarily. 

Mr.  Aster — for  it  was  he — looked  sharply  toward  them, 
for  the  first  time,  upon  hearing  himself  thus  named,  and 
immediately  steered  the  buckskin  horse  to  their  nearer 
vicinity. 

"  Mr.  Pamunkey,  my  cousin,  Mr.  Aster,"  said  Lucy, 
wishing  that  her  relative's  knees  were  not  quite  so  shiny, 
but  too  honest  to  ignore  the  tie. 

"  Honored,  I'm  shu-war,"  said  Mr.  Pamunkey,  bowing, 
and  evidently  too  much  astonished  to  say  more. 


ASTEK-RISKS   ON   ICE.  177 

"  Sir,  to  yon !"  returned  Aster,  promptly  forcing  the 
buckskin  horse  between  the  bay  and  the  gray ;  which  at 
once  laid  back  their  own  ears  in  compliment  to  the 
stranger,  and  exchanged  laughs  and  bites  with  him  on 
the  spot. — "  Sir,  to  you !     Lucy,  is  Lardner  with  you  ?" 

a  Pa  could  not  come,  on  account  of — " 

"  We'll  drop  the  subject,"  interrupted  Mr.  Aster,  im- 
patiently. "  Come  down  to  the  Lake  with  me,  and  I'll 
show  you  how  to  skate." 

"  But  Mr.  Pamunkey  is  my  escort,  sir !"  the  lady  ex- 
claimed, her  eyes  sparkling  ominously  behind  her  veil. 

The  drayman  reluctantly  directed  his  eyeglasses  to  the 
whiskers  of  the  chafing  Southron,  and  regarded  them 
with  darkening  jealousy. 

"  Pamunkey,  do  you  skate  ?" 

"  I  reckon  not,  sir !"  was  the  sharp  negative. 

"  Then  I  put  it  to  yon,  Pamunkey,"  rejoined  Aster, 
with  ill-suppressed  dislike,  "  whether  a  person  who  can't 
skate,  should  stand  in  the  way  of  a  lady's  going  down  to 
the  Lake  with  a  gentleman  who  can  skate  ?  Be  frank, 
now,  Pamunkey." 

"  Miss  Lardner,"  called  that  gentleman,  growing  more 
exasperated  as  Mr.  Aster  dodged  swiftly  back  and  forth 
between  them  in  such  a  manner,  that,  lean  and  sway  as  he 
might,  he  could  not  see  the  lady's  head  at  all — "  Miss  Lard- 
ner, as  you  are  now  in  your  cousin's  cay-ar,  I  shall  ask 
your  permission  to  withdrawar." 

"  Keep  still,  Cousin  John  !"  commanded  Lucy,  riding 
imperiously  forward  a  step  or  two.  "  I  shall  give  no  such 
permission,  Mr.  Pamunkey.  My  cousin  has  no  right  to 
force  any  such  alternative  upon  me.  If  his  boy,  here, 
will  take  care  of  our  horses,  we  may  all  go  down  to  the 
Lake  together." 


178  ASTEE-KISKS   ON   ICE. 

Aster  wore  a  pair  of  wash-leather  gloves,  and  gnawed 
one  of  them  savagely  while  she  spoke. 

"  Miss  Lardner,"  returned  the  gentleman,  bowing  and 
smiling  again,  "  I  know  no  law  highyar  than  what  you 
desiyar. — Don't  try  that  again  ! — d'y'ar  ?"  (do  you  hear  ?) 
This  last  unexpected  sentence  was  hurled,  with  sudden 
loss  of  temper,  at  the  buckskin  horse,  which  had  tried  to 
bite  his  arm. 

"  Don't  threaten  my  horse,  sir !"  thundered  Mr.  Aster. 
"Leave  him  alone,  and  he'll  leave  you  alone — unless 
you've  got  some  straw  about  you." 

To  make  her  meaning  the  more  peremptory  this  time, 
Miss  Lardner  pushed  aside  her  veil,  and  spoke  with  curl- 
ing lip. 

"If  my  Cousin  does  not  at  once  apologize  to  you  for 
that  speech,  Mr.  Pamunkey,  I  shall  ask  you  to  escort  me 
home  instantly.  I  ask  your  pardon,  myself,  for  such 
rudeness." 

"  Don't  mention  it,  Miss  Lardner." 

He  had  hardly  repeated  her  name,  when  Aster,  with  a 
curious  expression  of  repressed  pain  on  his  pale  face,  rode 
suddenly  against  the  other's  nearest  calf,  and  extended  to 
him  one  of  the  wash-leather  gloves. 

"  Pamunkey,"  he  said,  in  a  forced  voice,  "  let  us  shake 
hands.  I  wish  to  overlook  this  whole  thing.  I  have  no 
mother,  and  my  many  miseries  make  me  despise  my 
species." 

Doubtfully  as  the  apology  had  been  worded,  there  was 
a  gleam  of  real  anguish  in  the  bone  eyeglasses,  a  slant  of 
despairing  desperation  about  the  sombrero,  which  made 
Dinwiddie  Pamunkey  shake  the  offered  glove.  While 
men  are  equally  favored  rivals  for  a  fair  one's  preference, 
they  have  little  charity  or  pity  for  each  other;  but  when 


ASTEE-EISKS    ON    ICE.  179 

one  reads  what  he  takes  for  the  misery  of  love  finally  re- 
jected in  the  other's  unfriendly  eyes,  there  arises  in  his 
breast  a  kind  of  compassion  to  make  him  forbear  much. 
— At  least,  it  sounds  as  though  it  ought  to  be  so,  whether 
it  is  or  not. 

"  Now,  Cousin  Jack,"  said  the  pretty  peacemaker,  "  if 
you'll  promise  to  be  more  amiable,  I'll  promise  never  to 
tell your  sweetheart." 

"Hay?" 

It  was  a  wonder  that  all  three  were  not  thrown — so 
violently  did  all  their  horses  jump  at  the  startling  sound. 

"The  ide-javV  ejaculated  Mr.  Pamunkey,  who  had 
also  jumped. 

"  There  !"  murmured  the  equally  shocked  lady. — w  I'm 
always  forgetting." — Then,  as  a  quick  diversion — "  Do 
let  us  leave  the  horses  here,  with  the  boy,  and  go  down 
to  the  ice  at  once  !" 

Dinwiddie  Pamunkey  was  off  his  horse  in  a  moment, 
ready  to  assist  her  to  dismount,  and  speechless  was  his 
fresh  indignation  when  a  wash-leather  glove  coolly  pushed 
him  aside,  and  the  dismounted  drayman  offered  the  same 
glove  for  Miss  Lardner's  foot.  Speechless  was  his  mingled 
amazement  and  horror,  when  Mr.  Goggle,  who  had  taken 
in  the  whole  past  conversation  with  greedy  ears,  lightly 
tapped  him  just  above  the  waist  with  the  back  of  a  hand, 
and  then  danced  and  ducked  back  and  forth  at  him  with 
arms  raised  in  the  first  pugilistic  position. 

UI  can  play  my  points,"  growled  the  youth,  with 
threatening  emphasis;  "Zcan  fetch  yer!" 

"  Orlonzo  !"  exclaimed  Mr.  Aster,  reproachfully,  "  give 
me  my  skates  and  take  charge  of  these  three  thorough- 
breds at  once  !  What  do  you  two  mean  by  brawling  thus 
in  the  presence  of  a  lady  P 


180  ASTER-RISKS    ON   ICE. 

"  We  two  ?  The  ide-y&v  !"  was  all  the  incensed  South- 
ron could  say ;  so  choked  was  he  with  wrath. 

u  Mr.  Pamunkey,  please "  whispered   Lucy,  with 

such  a  glance  of  distressed  entreaty  that  he  again  re- 
strained his  anger. 

As  a  reward,  after  gathering  a  portion  of  her  trail  on  one 
arm,  she  pointedly  accepted  his  escort  with  the  other ;  and 
this  preference  so  embittered  the  much-enduring  Aster,  that 
the  latter,  swinging  his  skates,  stalked  after  them  down  the 
avenue  to  the  Lake  with  the  most  awful  expression  of 
countenance  ever  worn  by  a  cousin.  So  proudly  sensitive 
was  the  man  ;  so  morbidly  alive  to  any  human  notice  not 
devoted  exclusively  to  himself;  that  he  could  not  bear 
the  slightest  exhibition  of  girlish  coquetry  without  feeling 
himself  bitterly  ignored  on  account  of  his  draying. 

Arriving  after  them  at  the  edge  of  the  fine  esplanade 
by  the  Lake,  he  grimly  strapped  on  his  skates  without  a 
glance  for  anybody,  and  then  darted  out  amongst  the  skat- 
ing thousands  on  the  frozen  surface. 

"  Very  unceremonious,"  observed  Mr.  Pamunkey. 

"  He  is  the  most  eccentric  man  I  ever  knew,"  answered 
Lucy. 

So,  too,  thought  the  skaters  when  the  maddened  Aster 
hurled  himself  irresponsibly  forward  and  around  on  his 
gritting  pair  of  cast-irons,  apparently  courting  as  much 
of  the  ill-will  of  mankind  as  could  be  got  out  of  their 
combined  hatred.  Now  progressing  with  his  face  to  the 
front,  now  with  his  back,  he  spread  demoralization  in 
every  direction,  and  heaped  the  ice  with  the  forms  of  the 
slain. 

"  Lle'll  strike  that  old  gentleman !"  cried  Lucy,  af- 
frighted. 

"  He's  done  it !"  exclaimed  Mr.  Pamunkey,  aghast. 


ASTEE- RISKS   ON   ICE.  181 

Mr.  Aster,  very  much  sideways,  had  indeed  borne 
down  like  lightning  in  the  track  of  a  Gentleman  of  the 
Old  School,  who,  quite  unsuspicious  of  all  danger,  was 
gliding  respectably  along  in  fur  overcoat  and  cap, 
and  now  smote  against  him  full  length  from  behind, 
with  such  amazing  force  as  to  send  him  flying  like  a 
whirlwind  into  the  arms  of  a  policeman  guarding  an  air- 
hole. Caroming  thence,  at  an  acute  angle,  and,  with  his 
vast  hat  down  over  his  nose,  the  fell  destroyer,  his  arms 
fiercely  folded,  struck  out  right  and  left  on  either  side  a 
boyish  form  which  he  seemed  to  have  knocked  down  for 
that  express  purpose,  and  quickly  described  a  long  and 
graceful  curve  of  prostrate  young  men  and  maidens,  some 
of  whom  must  have  anathematized  him  with  their  dying 
breath.  Anon,  while  apparently  bent  upon  describing  a 
five-pointed  star  on  the  ice,  he  operated  in  the  throng  like 
an  exploding  shell,  so  great  was  the  carnage ;  and  the 
shrieks  and  groans  arising  on  all  sides,  as  he  ground  now 
over  this  one's  fingers,  now  over  that  one's  "  chignon," 
reminded  several  ex-military  spectators  on  the  esplanade 
and  banks  of  certain  terrible  war-scenes  in  the  Rebellion. 
As  for  a  very  nervous  middle-aged  gentleman  on  the  es- 
planade, for  whom  the  spectacle  appeared  to  possess  an 
agonizing  kind  of  fascination,  he  so  lost  all  control  of  him- 
self as  to  jerk  his  arms  in  all  directions  and  cry  "  Look 
out,  there  !"  at  every  fourth  throb  of  his  tortured  heart. 

"  This  is  dreadful !"  murmured  Lucy,  involuntarily 
clutching  the  arm  of  her  escort.  "  Feyarful,  I  de-cl'yar!" 
muttered  the  Southron. 

Ever  saving  himself  from  falls,  when  going  over  a  set 
of  lingers,  or  striking  a  fleshy  skater, — by  frantically 
grasping  the  nearest  shoulder,  or  impinging  to  the  per- 
pendicular against  the  nearest  solid  family  group, — the 


182  ASTER-EISKS    ON    ICE. 

suffering  Aster  still  pursued  Iris  prey  with  fierce  gravity 
of  countenance,  Lis  flying  Spanish  cloak  alternately  catch- 
ing under  the  chins  of  wildly  affrighted  skating-boys, 
and  flapping  up  across  his  own  frowning  face  like  the 
dislocated  wings  of  some  enormous  bat.  A  man  of  less 
character,  less  inordinate  Pride,  would  have  fallen  upon 
a  soft  boy  after  his  very  first  strike-out,  and  acknowl- 
edged what  was  really  the  truth,  viz — that  he  knew 
nothing  at  all  about  skating,  and  had  no  power  in  him- 
self to  refrain  from  slaughter :  but  this  stern  amateur, 
when  he  found  himself  helplessly  gliding  and  shooting 
toward  all  points  of  the  compass,  and  as  often  backfore- 
most  as  with  his  face  the  right  way,  simply  yielded  to 
fate  with  all  the  dark  recklessness  of  his  poisoned  nature, 
and  achieved  his  innumerable  collisions  with  all  the  sto- 
lidity of  a  "  steam-man." 

As  groaning  limpers,  suckers  of  fingers,  and  rubbers 
of  heads,  continually  retired  to  the  rear,  the  panic  spread 
through  the  whole  skating  army,  and  a  headlong  flight 
of  increasing  hundreds  set  in  for  the  esplanade  and  banks. 
Lovers  calling  for  their  sweethearts,  brothers  for  their 
sisters,  fathers  for  their  sons,  made  the  uproar  of  the  final 
sudden  rush  appalling  to  the  ear,  and,  as  the  grim  Aster 
passed  through  the  now  huddled  ranks  like  a  devastating 
chain-shot,  or,  anon,  seemed  diabolically  bent  upon 
swooping  after  some  unprotected  straggler  on  one  skate, 
the  scene  grew  terrific.  Several  single  policemen  had 
already  made  violent  efforts  to  catch  the  fleet  drayman  in 
their  arms,  and  been  swept  away  like  flies,  or  sent  skim- 
ming backward  in  helpless  velocity ;  but  some  ten  of  the 
stoutest  of  them  now  linked  hands  across  the  ice,  and 
bore  down  cautiously  upon  the  irresponsible  man.  With 
sombrero  over  his  nose,  bone  eyeglasses  askew,  and  the 


A8TEE-RI8K8   ON   IC:E.  183 

rear  of  his  cloak  standing  out  like  half  an  umbrella,  lie 
met  them  like  the  wind.  Double  went  the  chain  under 
the  tremendous  impetus  given  to  its  middle  man,  and 
over  went  four  stalwart  forms  in  dragging  confusion  ;  but 
the  chain  held,  and,  in  a  moment,  Mr.  Aster  was  sitting, 
much  flushed,  upon  a  pile  of  four  policemen  and  conver- 
sing with  the  survivors. 

It  was  noticed  from  the  banks,  that,  after  a  few  words, 
the  grey-coats  stood  aside,  in  attitudes  apparently  expres- 
sive of  mingled  respect  and  be  wilderment,  and  deferen- 
tially allowed  their  captive  to  haughtily  remove  his 
skates,  and  retire,  in  a  series  of  "  clear-the-gutter"  slides, 
to  the  crowded  esplanade.  From  this  it  has  been  since 
inferred,  that,  when  Mr.  Aster  gave  his  name  to  the 
captors,  they  very  naturally  mistook  it  (the  difference  of 
sound  between  an  "  e"  and  an  "  o"  in  the  last  syllable  being 
but  trifling)  for  that  of  a  wealthy  family,  whose  founder 
had  bequeathed  the  most  famous  of  Libraries  to  New 
York ;  and  could  not  think  it  right  to  arrest  such  an  il- 
lustrious citizen.  At  any  rate,  the  much-enduring  man 
rejoined  his  two  friends  ashore  under  no  greater  personal 
detriment  than  a  profuse  perspiration  and  some  disorder 
of  toilet ;  nor  did  his  chronically  contemptuous  demeanor 
change  under  the  muttered  execrations  of  the  countless 
skaters  swarming  back  to  their  element,  or  the  continued 
shrill  "  Look  out,  there !"  of  the  nervous  middle-aged 
gentleman, — who  had  become  hysterical. 

"  I'll  never  go  anywhere  with  you  again — never  1"  ex- 
claimed the  cruelly  mortified  Miss  Lardner  to  him,  as 
the  three  walked  up  the  path  toward  where  the  horses 
waited. 

"  Pamunkey,  just  walk  on  a  little  ahead,"  said  the 
drayman,  with  unwonted  mildness. 


184  ASTER-RISKS    ON   ICE. 

"  If  Miss  Lardner  desiyars — "  began  Mr.  Pamunkey. 

"  I  desire  it,  Pamunkey,"  interrupted  Aster,  with  a 
kind  of  mournful  dictation.  "  Just  walk  on — here's  a 
segar  for  you ;"  and,  from  an  inner  pocket,  lie  benevo- 
lently handed  the  other  a  badly  frayed  Regalia  quite  re- 
markable for  its  green  and  bright  yellow  sub-tints.  "Put 
that  in  your  pocket  until  dinner-time,"  said  Aster ;  but 
Mr.  Pamunkey,  although  walking  on  ahead,  was  so  ill- 
tempered  and  extravagant  as  to  instantly  throw  the  fra- 
grant gift  away. 

"  Lucy,  you  thought  my  skating  foolhardy  V 

"  It  was  simply  scandalous,  sir  I" 

"  Perhaps  so,  girl.  But  I  was  tired  of  my  life,  of  which 
I  cannot  yet  make  out  the  meaning.  Forgive  me  if  I 
have  pained  you,  Lucy.  Forgive  a  miserable  and  moth- 
erless man." 

His  voice  trembled,  and  the  girl's  cousinly  heart  once 
more  forgave  everything. 

"Cousin  John,  your  strange  ways  are  enough  to  alien- 
ate a  saint — which  I  don't  pretend  to  be,"  she  said,  more 
leniently ;  "  but  I  suppose  I  must  accept  your  apology. — 
Only,  you  must  never  treat  a  friend  of  mine  rudely 
again." 

"  Didn't  I  give  him  a  Havana  segar  just  now  ?"  remon- 
strated he,  impatiently. 

"  Pshaw ! — But  no  matter  for  that  now.  I've  just  time 
to  tell  you,  that  Pa  wishes  me  to  call  upon  your  Father 
to-morrow ;  and  I've  made  up  my  mind  to  return  good 
for  evil,  sir,  by  speaking  a  good  word  for  you,  then.  Pa 
has  already  obtained  your  Father's  consent  to  investigate 
about  that  watch  you  stole — " 

"  Hay  ?" 

— Mr.  Pamunkey,  on  ahead,  fairly  skipped,  he  was  so 


ASTER-RISKS    ON    ICE.  185 

startled,  and  Lucy  gave  such  a  start  that  her  hat  assumed 
the  Greeley  tilt. 

"  I  meant — oil  dear ! — to  say " 

But  Mr.  Aster  was  hastily  retiring  from  her  toward 
the  buckskin  horse,  his  bone  eyeglasses  glaring  stonily 
at  her,  his  left  hand  pulling  his  moustache,  and  his  whole 
demeanor  significant  of  a  wildly  spinning  mind.  Still 
glaring  thus,  he  mechanically  mounted  the  buckskin 
horse,  and  rode  solemnly  and  wordlessly  away,  followed 
by  Mr.  Goggle ;  his  face  turning  farther  and  farther 
backward  to  maintain  the  baleful  stare,  until  a  turn  in 
the  road  hid  rider,  horse,  and  follower,  from  view. 

"  The  ide-jSLY !"  exclaimed  Mr.  Pamunkey,  to  whom 
the  young  Orlonzo  had  uncermoniously  tossed  the  bridles 
of  the  two  horses. 

Lucy's  feelings  were  too  much  for  any  extended  re- 
mark at  that  moment.  "  Please  assist  me  to  mount," 
was  all  she  could  say  :  and  the  gentleman  found  his  own 
best  assurance  of  early  composure  in  imitating  her  subse- 
quent silence. 

They  were  to  see  the  melancholy  drayman  often  again, 
that  clay  ;  for,  as  they  rode  slowly  down  the  main  avenue 
of  the  Park  toward  the  city,  Mr.  Aster  appeared,  station- 
ary and  unexpectedly,  first  at  the  opening  of  one  cross- 
way,  and  then  at  another,  like  some  sinister  equestrian 
spectre  :  his  glass  eyes  fixed  relentlessly  upon  them,  and 
his  buckskin  horse  laughing  horribly  at  theirs. 


186  THE  OWXER  OF  THE  WATCH. 


xxir. 

TnE    OWNER   OF   TnE   WATCH. 

IIS"  whatever  degree  of  contempt  the  reader  of  this 
work  of  art  may  be  inclined  to  hold  the  insensate 
Lardner,  and  masculine  Lardnerism  generally,  the  pre- 
sent conscientious  artist  has  done  considerable  injustice 
to  a  fairer  subject  if  the  same  sentiment  is  entertained 
for  Miss  Lardner.  She  was  not  that  grim  anomaly  some- 
times termed  an  Intellectual  woman  :  for  she  neither  in- 
sulted gentlemen  in  a  bass  voice,  nor  wanted  to  attend 
surgical  lectures.  She  was  not  the  conventional  strong- 
minded  woman :  for  she  seldom  had  a  cold  in  her  head, 
and  was  not  near-sighted.  She  could  make  claim  for 
none  of  these  shining  exceptional  gifts,  which,  as  every 
one  knows,  have  given  the  world  so  many  noble  and  use- 
ful feminine  inventions,  discoveries,  business-triumphs, 
and  mechanical  improvements ;  but  her  friends  credited 
her  with  a  sprightly,  though  unassuming,  Intelligence, 
allowing  its  possessor  to  rank  with  that  wholesome  girl- 
hood which  is  every  young  man's  natural  ideal  at  a  dis- 
tance, and  his  pleasantest  presentment  of  the  real  nearer 
at  hand.  Like  all  normal  maidens  of  her  years  and 
means,  she  looked,  in  street,  or  ball,  toilet,  exactly  like 
all  other  maidens  of  similar  hair  and  complexion,  the 
only  difference  being  some  little  peculiarity  in  minor 
hair-dressing  details  ;  yet,  to  the  eye  of  affection,  she 
was  distinguishable  from  almost  any  rival  blonde  of  the 
day,  even  when  the  two  were  not  close  together;  and  the 


TIIE    OWNER    OF   TIIE    WATCn.  187 

friendly  ear  could  detect  in  her  conversation  an  occasional 
arrangement  of  words,  if  not  actual  words  themselves, 
-which  seemed  in  some  way  slightly  different  from  that, 
or  those,  of  all  other  fashionable  girls.  It  would  be  going 
too  far,  perhaps,  to  say,  that  her  style  at  the  piano,  and 
selection  of  music,  wrere  not  precisely  similar  to  the  one 
style  and  selection  of  all  young-lady  players  ;  and  the 
most  liberal  credulity  as  to  individuality  in  belles  would 
reject  the  conceit,  that  you  might  close  your  eyes,  and 
yet  be  able  to  tell  whether  she,  or  any  other  young  lady 
of  your  acquaintance,  were  the  singer  of  an  Italian  air; 
but  she  certainly  thought  more  of  her  own  particular 
friends  than  all  the  other  blondes  of  the  day  thought  of 
the  same  ones,  and  thus  merits  nearly  as  much  considera- 
tion for  individuality  of  character  as  it  is  possible  for  any 
young  lady  of  fashion  to  claim. 

Lucy  was  deeply  interested  in  her  Cousin  Jack,  despite 
his  amazing  eccentricities,  and  really  carried  her  father 
along  in  the  cause,  where  he  had  else  shown  high  dud- 
geon from  the  first.  When  the  Cousin  made  his  earliest 
appearance  in  her  home,  before  his  abrupt  departure  for 
the  war,  she  had  been  greatly  attracted,  in  her  girlish 
fancies,  by  the  romantic  suggestions  of  his  domestic  mis- 
fortune and  aristocratic  sensitiveness  ;  but  now,  when  the 
embitterment  of  adversity  gave  him  a  certain  fierce,  athe- 
istical, piratical  air,  and  his  manner  with  her,  as  with 
everybody,  was  that  of  intolerant  superiority  and  brist- 
ling injury,  she  could  not  repress  a  still  profounder  con- 
sciousness of  attraction.  There  was  a  subtle  magnetism 
about  the  melancholy  and  world-soured  drayman  which 
enslaved  her  the  more  every  time  she  saw  him  ;  which 
triumphed  despotically  over  every  protest  of  her  delicate 
mind  against  his  hat,  cloak,  eyeglasses,  and  contemptuous 


188  THE  OWNER  OF  THE  WATCH. 

demeanor,  and  made  her  such  a  partisan  as  even  be 
scarcely  deserved.  If  her  deepest  feeling  here  did  any 
serious  wrong  to  Miss  Dapple's  claim,  she  did  not  mean 
that  it  should  do  so.  In  her  own  supposition,  it  came 
nearer  an  irrepressible  tribute  of  reverence,  so  to  speak, 
to  a  character  stronger  than  her  own,  than  to  the  familiar 
love  of  a  mere  maiden  for  a  mere  young  man  ;  and  she 
honestly  thought  that  her  real  anxiety  for  a  reconcilia- 
tion between  the  discarded  son  and  his  sire,  was  based 
upon  nothing  more  of  self-interest  than  an  enthusiastic 
desire  to  see  an  injured  gentleman  restored  to  his  proper 
sphere. 

Let  this  analysis  of  a  womanly  character  common  to 
the  world  ever  since  "  Jane  Eyre  "  was  written,  serve  as 
an  introduction  of  Miss  Lardner  as  a  visitor,  or  caller, 
in  Jenkins  Place.  She  was  there,  nominally  by  her 
father's  wish,  but  as  much  by  her  own,  to  show  the 
sickly  elder  Aster,  that  his  reconciled  half-brother  was 
earnest  in  his  lately  avowed  friendliness,  and  to  plead,  as 
she  might  have  opportunity,  for  the  outcast  son.  Mrs. 
Aster's  stately  departure,  soon  after  her  arrival,  for  a 
supposed  shopping  excursion,  had  been  such  a  concession 
to  the  theory  of  inferred  dislike  and  consequent  temporiz- 
ing etiquette  as  came  most  fortunately  for  her  particular 
purpose ;  but  she  observed,  with  some  misgivings,  that 
the  ladylike  nurse  showed  no  intention  to  leave  the  room. 
All  her  pointed  drawings  near  to  her  Uncle's  chair,  and 
sudden  severe  assumptions  of  painful  constraint,  were 
quite  lost  upon  the  demure  Mrs.  Dedley  ;  she  was  not 
more  successful  when,  after  brushing  down  a  light  table 
and  chair  with  her  skirts,  and  dragging  the  coal-hod  half- 
way across  the  room  by  her  crinoline,  she  brought  to  the 
invalid  some   bottle   he  had  asked  the  nurse  for;   and 


THE    OWOTSB    OF   THE    WATCH.  189 

when  even  her  emphasized  "Let  me  be  your  nurse, 
alone,  Uncle  Philip,  for  a  little  while,"  failed  to  move 
the  obdurate  woman  from  her  seat  by  the  window, 
Lucy  desperately  resolved  to  speak  out,  nurse  or  no 
nurse. 

"  Before  going  away,  Uncle  Philip,"  she  said,  with  a 
rather  determined  expression  about  her  pretty  mouth,  "  I 
must  mention  John's  name.  AYe  feel  so  sorry  for  him — 
Pa  and  I." 

The  old  man's  pallid  countenance,  which  had  hitherto 
looked  pleasantly  upon  her,  now  contracted  to  sternness, 
and  she  saw  that  lie  was  offended.  Nevertheless,  her  hon- 
est eyes  still  met  his  inquiringly. 

"  My  dear,"  he  said,  feebly  but  coldly,  your  heart  is  a 
great  deal  stronger  than  your  judgment.  Mention  no 
names  but  your  father's  and  your  own." 

"But,  Uncle,  you  are  so  unjust  to  Cousin  Jack,"  per- 
sisted she  ;  "  you  believe  such  impossible  things  of  him. 
Oh,  wonH  you  let  me  tell  him  that  he  may  come  here 
once  more  and  ask  your  pardon  ?" 

"Don't,  my  child, — you  can't  understand — "  pleaded 
the  invalid,  faintly.     "  Where  is  Mrs.  Dedley  ?" 

"  She  shan't  come  until  I  get  through,  Uncle  Philip  !" 
was  Lucy's  stout  retort,  as  she  imperiously  motioned  the 
nurse  to  come  no  nearer.  "  I  only  want  to  say  a  little  to 
you  about  Cousin  John,  and  that  I  must  say.  Uncle, 
he's  no  more  guilty  of  taking  that  watch  in  Chatham 
Square  than  I  am  !  I  never  knew  all  about  it  myself  un- 
til to-day ;  for  John  goes  almost  mad  at  the  mere  mention 
of  it ;  but,  this  morning  I  called  upon  Miss  Dapple,  a 
friend  of  mine,  and  found  out  that  her  father  is  the  very 
person  who  recovered  the  watch  !" 

Since  the  sick  man's  call  for  her,  Mrs.  Dedley  had  been 


190  THE  OWNER  OF  THE  WATCH. 

standing ;  but  she  now  sat  down  again,  and  looked 
strangely  at  the  animated  speaker. 

"  My  friend  says,"  went  on  Lucy,  watching  her  Un- 
cle, only,  "  that  the  watch  has  since  turned  out  to  be  not 
her  father's  at  all,  but  one  exactly  like  his  ;  and  her  fath- 
er was  sure,  when  he  came  home  that  day,  that  the  per- 
son— your  own  son,  Uncle  Philip — arrested  for  the  theft, 
was  no  thief  at  all !' ' 

"  Then  why  didn't  he  return  the  watch  to  the  court, 
and  clear  John  ?"  asked  Mr.  Aster,  palpable  excitement 
giving  him  feverish  strength  for  the  moment. 

"  Because — because,"  faltered  Lucy, — "  I  don't  know 
why  he  didn't.  But  he  did  not ;  and  yet  he  says — or,  at 
least  Dollie  says  he  says  that  he  did  not  own  the  watch. 
He  had  left  his  own  watch  at  home  that  day." 

This  confused  explanation  had  an  unfavorable  effect ; 
for  the  sick  father's  face  fell  again,  and  he  sank  back  into 
his  pillows. 

"  You've  been  imposed  upon,  child  ;  or  you  are  trying 
to  deceive  me,"  he  muttered  peevishly. 

"  I'm  sure  that  what  I  tell  you  is  true,  though  I  don't  un- 
derstand Mr.  Dapple's  action,"  said  Lucy,  recovering  from 
her  momentary  flurry.  "  Why  won't  you  let  Pa  go  to 
Mr.  Dapple  and  inquire  about  it,  Uncle  Philip  ?" 

"  He  may  go  if  he  chooses,"  sighed  Mr.  Aster,  weari- 
edly ;  "  I  have  no  hope  for  my  degenerate  son — none. 
Talk  of  something  else,  my  dear." 

"But  I  must  go  now,  Uncle.  I  shall  come  again, 
though,  before  long ;  and  stay  more,  if  you'll  have  me. 
I'm  sorry  if  I've  worried  you  ;  but  I  know  you're  dread- 
fully deceived  about  Cousin  John.  It  must  sound  strange- 
ly, I  know,"  she  added,  coloring  deeply,  "  for  a  young 
girl  like  me  to  be  vindicating  a  gentleman  to  his  own 


THE   OWNER   OE   THE    WATCH.  191 

father;   but  you'll  forgive  it  jet,  and  thank  me  yet,  I 
know ;  and  I  don't  care  much  about  any  one  else." 

"  I  like  you  very  much,  already,  Lucy.  You  look  like 
my  brother." 

Then  Miss  Lardner  said  good-bye,  hardly  knowing 
whether  to  congratulate  herself  or  not,  and  was  sliglitly 
surprised  to  notice  that  the  nurse,  instead  of  calling  a  ser- 
vant, seemed  bent  upon  conducting  her  to  the  street- 
door  herself.  !Not  feeling  any  great  admiration  for  this 
person,  after  her  recent  refusal  to  be  hinted  into  some 
other  apartment  for  a  while,  Miss  Lardner  descended  the 
stairways  with  an  unnaturally  supercilious  air,  nor  stopped 
to  bestow  a  word  upon  Mrs.  Declley  ;  yet  that  grave  ma- 
tron spoke  to  her,  when  they  had  reached  the  street  hall, 
and  in  very  astounding  terms,  too. 

"  Will  you  think  me  too  bold,  Ma'am,  if  I  ask  you  to 
step  into  the  parlor  a  moment  and  hear  something  I  have 
to  say  ?     It  may  be  important  to  you." 

"  Can  you  not  tell  me  here  ?"  asked  Lucy,  surprised  be- 
yond expression  by  the  odd  address. 

"If  you  prefer  it,"  answered  the  nurse,  quietly.  "I 
think  I  can  tell  you  who  lost  that  stolen  watch." 

"  You?"  ejaculated  the  young  lady,  staring  beyond  all 
good  manners. 

a  Will  you  step  into  this  room,  now  V9 
=  Hardly  realizing  what  she  was  about,  Miss  Lardner  fol- 
lowed into  a  gorgeous  parlor  made  dim  by  Venetian 
blinds,  and,  declining,  by  a  motion  of  her  hands,  to  be 
seated,  looked  keenly  at  the  now  shaded  face  of  Mrs. 
Dedley. 

"Miss  Lardner,"  commenced  the  latter,  speaking  low 
and  rapidly,  u  you  spoke  of  a  Mr.  Dapple  as  having  re- 
covered a  watch  stolen,  a3  he  thought,  in  Chatham  Square. 


192  THE   OWNER   OF   THE   WATCH. 

May  I  make  free  to  ask  if  you  know  about  what  time  the 
event  happened  ?" 

"  In  the  Fall,  I  believe — September,  I  should  think." 

"  Is  Mr.  Dapple  a  toy-maker  ?" 

"  Yes." 

"  Then  I  think  I  can  explain  why  he  did  not  return 
that  watch  to  court.     It  had  been  his  dead  wife's  watch." 

"  Why, — then — it  must — really  have  been  stolen  !" 
cried  Miss  Lardner,  bewildered,  and  with  a  presentiment 
of  evil." 

"  Yes.     It  was  stolen  from  me." 

"  From  you  !     Mrs—  ?" 

"  My  name  is  Dedley,  Ma'am.  I  was  nurse  in  a  hospital 
before  coming  here  ;  and  before  that,  again,  I  was  a  pa- 
tient in  the  hospital,  with  my  cot  next  to  that  of  the  sick 
wife  of  a  poor  toymaker  named  Dapple.  We  became  ac- 
quainted, as  we  lay  there  side  by  side  so  long,  and  the 
poor  woman  told  me  one  day  that  her  watch,  bought  in 
better  times,  was  just  like  her  husband's,  except  that  it 
had  her  initials  inside.  She  died  in  the  hospital,  and  left 
her  watch  to  me ;  for  her  husband  never  came  near  her 
while  she  was  there.  I  was  walking  in  Chatham  Square, 
one  afternoon  this  Fall,  and  that  watch  was  picked  from 
my  pocket." 

"  Oh,  Mrs.  Dedley  !"  exclaimed  Lucy,  clasping  her 
hands,  "  I  am  so  sorry  to  hear  this  !  I  had  hoped  that  the 
watch  had  come  honestly  into  the  hands  of  the — the — 
person  they  took  it  from." 

"  It  was  a  rough,  heavy  man,  with  red  whiskers,  who 
robbed  me,  Miss  Lardner.  He  ran  against  me,  and  then 
ran  into  a  great  crowd  standing  around  a  showman's 
wagon.  I  missed  my  watch  in  a  minute  afterwards,  but 
knew  I  could  do  nothing." 


THE   OWNER   OF   THE   WATCII.  193 

"  You're  sure  that  was  the  thief,"  cried  Lucy. 

"  I  am  sure.  I  had  compared  the  watch  with  the  City 
Hall  clock,  a  moment  before  he  ran  against  me." 

u  You've  made  me  more  glad  than  I  can  tell  you," 
said  Lucy,  impulsively  shaking  hands  with  her.  "I'm 
sure  it  is  your  watch,  and  I'm  sure  you  may  recover  it 
now." 

"  Eo,"  returned  Mrs.  Dedley,  without  apparent  emo- 
tion, u  I  do  not  want  it  if  Mr.  Dapple  has  it.  It  was  his 
wife's,  you  see,  ma'am,  and  he  should  keep  it.  There 
seems  to  be  a  singular  Providence  in  his  getting  it  so." 

u  I  must  speak  to  you  again  about  this,  Mrs.  Dedley," 
remarked  Lucy,  after  an  interval  of  reflection.  u  Shall 
you  be  here  all  the  time  ?" 

"  Yes,  Ma'am.  I  don't  wish  to  be  bold,  Miss  Lardner, 
but  is  the  poor  Toy  maker  doing  well  ?  I  mean,  is  he  any 
better  off  than  he  was  when  poor  Mrs.  Dapple  went  2" 

"  I  only  know  Miss  Dapple,  you  see." 

"  Excuse  me,  then.  I  was  so  sorry  for  that  poor 
woman." 

As  Lucy  Lardner  returned  home  that  afternoon,  she 
asked  herself  half  a  dozen  times,  whether  she  had  been 
awake  or  asleep  for  the  past  two  hours  ;  and  was  hardly 
able  to  decide  just  how  much  of  herself  \o  believe  in. 

9 


194  MOTHER   AND    SON. 


XXIII. 


MOTHER     AND     SON. 


TO  fight  circumstantial  Injustice  and  great  odds  suc- 
cessfully,— successfully,  mind, — and  extort  confes- 
sion of  defeat,  are  very  often  equivalent  to  a  quick  ascent 
from  the  loneliest  unpopularity  to  the  very  peak  of  mob 
favor  ;  for  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of  mankind  in  the  mass 
to  sulk  very  long  under  complete  conquest,  aud  it  is  in 
that  nature  to  finally  adopt  and  glorify  the  conqueror  if 
he  shows  any  tact  at  all  in  his  victory.  A  triumph  not 
complete  in  all  respects — a  successful  temporization  with 
ultimate  wrasuccess,  so  to  speak, — leaves  plenty  of  chronic 
malcontents  to  keep  the  truce  hollow  ;  but  don't  you  be- 
lieve, my  professional  Oppositionist,  that  a  thorough  and 
radical  overthrow  means  anything  less  than  a  speedy  cold 
shoulder  for  you  from  your  late  devoted  followers,  and 
an  early  round  of  cheers  from  them  for  the  man  who 
whipped  the  nonsense  out  of  them. 

Theodore  DaTiforth's  fight  against  all  the  other  medici 
of  Riverside  Hospital  had  culminated  in  such  a  sweeping 
success,  that  only  his  dexterous  tact  in  victory  was  requi- 
site to  make  him  the  popular  idol  in  another  week.  Up 
he  went  to  unexceptional  favor,  from  the  famous  day  of 
the  Governor's  visit,  and  "  The  Little  Game-Cock  "  be- 
came the  term  of  endearment  by  which  his  late  unscru- 
pulous enemies  at  once  learned  to  designate  him. 

Who  doesn't  like  a  pet  name ;  who  doesn't  like  it  all 
the  better  with  an  adjective  of  diminution  ?     Napoleon 


MOTHER   AND    SON.  195 

the  First  complacently  tolerated  the  endearment  of 
"  Little  Corporal,"  a  great  Western  statesman  was  cheer- 
ful under  the  loving  designation  of  "  Little  Giant,"  and 
a  cheerful  New  York  editor  once  responded  blithely  to 
the  affectionate  salute  of  u  Little  Yillain."  Although  a 
professing  Christian,  and  therefore  prejudiced  against 
that  gamey  rivalry  of  roosters  which  gives  New  Jersey 
a  superiority  over  all  the  other  States  in  the  main,  Dan- 
forth  couldn't  help  feeling  a  certain  pleasant  tingling  of 
vanity  under  his  sprightly  new  appellation — though  he 
certainly  was  the  least  bit  dashed,  one  morning,  when  he 
overheard  a  patient  of  his  telling  the  House-Physician, 
that  so-and-so  had  been  administered  to  him  by  "that 
ere  young  fighting-cock  in  specs."  He  accepted  the  title 
as  a  felicitous  condensation  of  all  the  admiring  good-will 
an  ambitious  young  man  could  ask  ;  and,  as  he  rode  in  a 
horse- car  toward  Jenkins  Place,  one  cold  evening,  there 
came  into  his  mind  a  strong  temptation  to  tell  his  lady- 
mother  of  the  nominal  honor  he  had  gained. 

Had  Mrs.  Aster  shown  her  usual  tolerant  equanimity 
when  greeting  him,  he  might,  indeed,  have  been  thus 
vainly  facetious  ;  but,  to  his  mild  astonishment,  she  pre- 
sented a  cloudy  brow  for  his  filial  salute,  and  actually 
sighed  as  she  suffered  him  to  cast  an  arm  over  her  goodly 
shoulders  on  the  parlor  sofa. 

"  Nothing  happened,  I  hope  ?"  he  inquired.  "  Father's 
not  worse  to-day,  is  he  ?" 

"  Oh,  no ;  he  is  sleeping  very  comfortably,"  was  the 
answer. 

6i  Can't  I  see  him,  then,  before  I  go  ?" 

"  It  would  be  a  pity  to  rouse  him.  Most  of  his  best 
sleep,  you  know,  comes  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  night. 
He  coughs  a  great  deal  after  that." 


196  MOTHER   AND    SON. 

"  Yes,  I  understand.  Too  bad,  though ;  for  I'd  like 
to  shake  hands." 

u  Have  you  been  well,  Theodore  ?" 

"  I  am  feeling  brisk  as  ■' — a  "  Game-cock,"  he  was  go- 
ing to  say,  but  dexterously  caught  himself  and  said — 
"  can  be." 

"  We  like  Mrs.  Dedley  very  much." 

"  I'm  glad  of  that.     I  thought  you  would." 

This  was  all  commonplace  enough,  and  their  frequent 
style  of  opening  a  home-conversation  ;  but  Mrs.  Aster 
still  failed  to  look  like  her  usual  unruffled  self,  and  her 
son  could  no  longer  abstain  from  the  question  he  had 
wished  to  ask  at  first. 

"  "What  makes  you  look  so  '  bine  '  to-night,  mother  ?" 

"  Because  I  am  very  much  disturbed  indeed,  my  son," 
returned  the  lady,  at  once  throwing  off  all  assumption  of 
ease,  and  startling  him  with  a  sadly  worn  and  anxious 
look.  "  I  wrote  you  this  morning  to  come,  not  that  your 
Father  might  talk  with  you,  as  I  said,  but  that  I  might 
tell  you  something  you  should  hear  from  me  alone." 

Now  I  wonder,  thought  the  young  man,  uneasily — I 
wonder  if  something  actually  has  turned  up  about  Mrs. 
Dedley's  character,  after  all  ?     But  he  said — 

"  I  hope  it's  nothing  very  unpleasant." 

"  It  is  so  far  from  pleasant,  that  I  should  never  have 
spoken  of  it  to  you  in  my  life,  'Dory,  if  I  had  not  been 
forced  to  do  so." 

"  Forced  to  do  so  !"  repeated  Danforth,  turning  to  stare 
more  amazedly  at  her. 

"Yes,  forced.  Theodore,  do  you  remember  anything 
about  your — own  father  ?     Anything  at  all  ?" 

Her  son's  countenance  changed  at  once  to  an  expres- 
sion of  grave  concern,  and  his  voice  sympathetically  fell : 


/ 

MOTHER   AND   SON.  197 

"  I  remember  very  little,  mother.  I  have  not  tried  to 
remember." 

"  He  was  a  cruel  father  to  you,  and  a  cruel  husband  to 
me !"  exclaimed  Mrs.  Aster,  with  intense  bitterness. 
u  He  neglected  us  for  his  dissipated,  degrading  associa- 
tions, until  I  was  obliged  to  leave  him,  taking  only  what 
I  should  have  had,  and  work  out  a  living,  myself,  for  his 
child  and  wife.  I  should  have  degraded  both  of  us  to  his 
level  by  remaining  longer  under  the  roof  of  that  man  !" 

"  Let  the  dead  rest,  mother,"  was  the  gloomy  reply. 

"But  what  if  the  dead  will  not  rest?"  rejoined  his 
mother,  pressing  his  arm  spasmodically  with  both  her 
hands.  "  What  if  I  have  an  enemy  who  not  only  threat- 
ens to  tell  the  story  of  the  dead  to  my  sick  husband  up- 
stairs, but  might  even  seek  to  alienate  you,  also,  from  me, 
Theodore,  by  making  my  past  misery  your  present 
shame  ?" 

The  astounded  young  man  drew  further  away  from 
her  on  the  sofa,  that  he  might  gaze  more  searchingly  into 
her  agitated  face ;  his  own  countenance  whitening  as  he 
spoke : 

"  What  is  this  you  are  telling  me  1  An  enemy  ?  Who 
is  he  %  What  can  he  tell  to  injure  any  one  living  ? 
Didn't  Mr.  Aster  know,  before  marrying  you,  that  you 
were  teaching  school  because  you  had  been  obliged  to 
leave  my  father  ?  My  precious  mother !  tell  me  what 
you  mean !" 

'•Theodore!" — her  voice  was  soft  with  affection,  and 
her  hand  was  placed  half  pleadingly  upon  his  knee, — "  I 
fear  nothing  for  your  Stepfather,  and  have  even  dared 
this  enemy  to  tell  him  all  he  can ;  but  it  breaks  my  heart 
to  think  of  your  pride,  and  perhaps  some  of  your  pros- 
pects in  life,  being  brought  to  the  dust  by  common  tattle 


198  MOTHER   AND   SON. 

of  your  mother's  past !  How  can  you  hold  up  your  head 
again,  after  I  have  been  spoken  of  around  you  as  a  drunk- 
ard's runaway  wife  ?" 

"  "Whoever  speaks  of  you  in  that  way,  around  me,  will 
never  hold  up  his  head  again,  for  I'll  knock  it  off  his 
shoulders  !"  returned  Danforth,  passionately.  "  But  who 
in  the  world  can  this  insolent  '  enemy '  of  yours  be  ?" 

"  A  detective  policeman." 

"  What?"  ejaculated  the  young  man,  with  a  startling 
sharpness  worthy  an  Asterian  "  Hay." 

"  A  detective,  I  tell  you,  who  has  been  employed  by 
Mr.  Aster  to  trace  out  the  evil-doings  of  his  worthless 
sons.  I,  also,  have  paid  the  man  for  professional  services ; 
and,  upon  failing  lately  to  extort  an  extravagant  reward 
from  me,  he  revealed  himself  as  the  officer  who  had 
served  the  writ  of  injunction  upon  what  your  father  called 
his  6  stolen  property,'  and  insolently  threatened  to  use  his 
knowledge,  as  I  have  said." 

"  Can  I  believe  my  ears  ?"  cried  Danforth,  gazing  at 
her  in  a  kind  of  incredulous  horror.  "  You — my  mother 
— dealing  with  the  detective  police  ?  Then  I  should  feel 
disgraced  indeed !"  He  started  violently  from  the  sofa, 
took  two  or  three  quick  turns  between  that  and  a  win- 
dow, and  sat  down  again.  "  For  heaven's  sake,  mother, 
what  earthly  business  can  you  have  with  a  private  police- 
man ?     My  blood  boils  at  the  idea." 

"  Theodore  !  Theodore  !"  pleaded  the  agitated  mother, 
in  tremulous  accents,  "you  should  not  speak  to  me 
harshly." 

"  But  this  is  unwomanly  ;  mad  !"  he  exclaimed,  striking 
the  sofa-back  at  each  sharp  inflection.  "  It  has  always 
been  my  great  pride  to  hold  you  as  such  a  Lady  ;  to  com- 
pare you  with  other  women  in  society  and  think  how 


A 


MOTHER   AND    SON.  199 

much  more  of  real  womanly  dignity  you  had  than  they  I 
— And  now  to  hear  this  !" 

"My  son — !"  she  commenced;  and,  with  a  sudden 
choking  sound,  hid  her  face  in  her  handkerchief. 

Shocked  at  the  effect  of  his  words,  Danforth  moved 
penitently  to  her  side  once  more,  and  gently  drew  down 
her  hands.  "  I  didn't  mean  it,  mother,"  he  whispered, 
pleadingly.  "I  was  foolishly  excited.  I'll  hear  all,  now, 
and  behave  better." 

"  You  are  the  only  creature  iu  the  world,  Theodore, 
who  can  wound  me,"  she  said,  her  swimming  eyes  turned 
lovingly  upon  him  once  more. 

"  My  dear  mother !" 

"  What  you  blame  me  so  much  for,  was  done  to  save 
you  and  your  poor  little  baby-brother  from  wrong.  I 
only  hired  the  man  to  be  more  zealous  in  proving  the  ut- 
ter un worthiness  of  John  Aster,  who  would  regain  his 
outraged  father's  favor  only  to  malign  and  persecute  me." 

M  Was  a  policeman  necessary  for  such  a  purpose  ?"  asked 
her  son,  smiling  faintly. 

"  To  deal  with  such  as  he — yes  !  He  is  a  common,  low 
carter ;  a  thief,  even !"  And  her  voice  grew  strong 
again.  "  To  find  excuse  for  coming  here,  and  insulting 
me  at  his  sick  father's  bedside,  he  stole  your  baby-brother 
from  his  little  carriage  in  the  street,  and  brought  him  up 
to  me  and  to  his  father  with  a  made-up  falsehood  about 
recovering  him  from  some  one  else !  My  husband  is 
helpless ;  you  are  not  here  to  protect  me  from  this  ruffian, 
and  I  have — done  as  I  say." 

Theodore  Danforth  did  not  draw  away,  or  start  from 
his  seat,  again;  but,  respectfully  holding  his  moth- 
er's nearer  hand,  he  looked  down  and  drew  a  heavy- 
breath. 


\^  /.  1 1  M  .il 


200  MOTHER   AND   SON. 

"  Mother,  if  you  need  protection  from  anybody,  while 
Father  is  ill,  or  at  any  future  time,  it  shall  be  my  duty  to 
give   up  every  thing  else,  and   stay  only   at  your  side. 
But  you  know  that  I  have  always  been  against  any  inter- 
meddling of  ours  between  the  Asters  and  their  father.     I 
know  little  about  them,  except  that  they  hated  me,  with- 
out much  provocation  of  my  own,  when  all  three  of  us 
were  comparative  boys  in  Philadelphia.     This  I  do  know, 
though :  that,  whatever  one,  or  both  of  them,  may  be, — 
and  we  don't  know  that  Phil  is  even  living — there  ought 
to  be  no  kind  of  iuterference  between  them  and  their 
father.     Mr.  Aster  preferred  you  to  them  before,  and  he 
will  not  wrong  you  for  them,  now.     If  he  could  be  capa- 
ble of  such  a  thing,  you  should  find  a  worthier  protector 
than  himself  in  me !     Don't  let  us  be  afraid  to  do  what  is 
right,  even  if  John  Aster  tries  to  do  what  is  wrong.     I 
tell  you,  mother,  I  have  never  felt  satisfied  about  those 
young  chaps'  desertion   of  their   home  on  our  account. 
There  was  something  wrong,  and  reproachful  to  us,  in  it. 
I'm  often  fearful  that  you  resented  their  anti-Stepmother 
boyish  airs  too  much  to  their  father,  and  helped  the  trou- 
ble in  that  way.     At  any  rate,  let  us  wash  our  hands  of 
the  matter  now,  and  let  father  and  son  settle  it  between 
themselves.     Any  other  course  must  subject  us  to  such 
comment  as  would  hurt  both  of  us  far  more  than  anything 
the  world  could  say  about  what  you  so  undeservingly 
suffered  in  the  past.     Only  say  the  word,  and  I'll  not 
only  see  this  rascally,  insolent  policeman  myself,  but  also 
see  that  he  never  presumes  to  set  foot  in  your  presence 
again.'' 

This  long  and  animated  speech,  which  was  delivered 
with  an  earnestness  growing  more  vehement  at  every  ad- 
ditional sentence,  seemed  to  arouse  no  strong  particular 


MOTHER    AXD    SOX.  201 

emotion  in  Mr.?.  Aster  while  she  listened  ;  bnt,  when  her 
son  stopped  speaking,  she  quietly  disengaged  her  hand 
from  his  and  lifted  her  head  to  its  usual  stately  poise. 

"  You  have  done  your  part  in  giving  the  advice,  Theo- 
dore/' she  answered  :  not  coldly,  though  with  far  less 
softness  than  before.  "'  I  shall  not  go  an  inch  beyond 
what  I  consider  my  duty.  If  you  feel  that  you  can  af- 
ford to  despise  what,  as  I  have  told  you,  has  been  threat- 
ened, the  threat  has  no  terror  for  me.  To-morrow  I  shall 
finally  dismiss  the  detective  myself;  and  if,  after  that, 
he  troubles  me  again,  why,  then,  you  shall  deal  with 
him." 

"  I  suppose  I  must  submit,"  was  the  rather  disconsolate 
comment  upon  this  decided  ultimatum. 

"  Something  is  due  to  my  dignity  as  a  self-respecting 
woman,"  added  the  lady,  her  lips  and  chin  wearing  then* 
firmest  expression ;  "  and,  while  I  am  Mr.  Aster's  wife, 
his  sick-room,  at  least,  shall  have  some  guard  against  the 
license  of  those  who  come  as  much  out  of  wanton  disre- 
spect to  me.  as  from  artfully  feigned  consideration  for 
him.  I'm  greatly  obliged  to  vou,  Theodore,  for  showing 
some  little  chivalry,  as  a  hospital  champion  of  women,  at 
any  rate,  and  securing  such  a  coadjutor  for  me  as  Mrs. 
Dedley." 

"Which  mixture  of  suggestive  self-assertion  and  mild 
motherly  sarcasm  so  subdued  the  "  Little  Game-Cock " 
of  Riverside,  that  he  made  but  a  spiritless  display  in 
their  farther  conversation  on  other  topics,  and  finally 
went  forth  again  to  his  horse-car  in  a  depressing  reverie. 
He  was  both  puzzled  and  apprehensive ;  suspicious  of 
harm  and  helpless  to  avert  it. 


202  MR.    STALKER    IS   FTNAXLY   DISMISSED. 


XXIV. 

ME.    STALKER   IS    FINALLY   DISMISSED. 

"  \Z  OU  say,  Mrs.  Dedley,  that  you  think  she  made 
JL  an  impression  upon  Mr.  Aster  with  the  story 
about  the  Toyman  ?" 

"  Mr.  Aster  seemed  excited  at  first,  Ma'am  ;  but  didn't 
appear  to  place  much  confidence  in  it  at  last.  But  I've 
told  you  all  they  both  said,  Mrs.  Aster,  and  you  can  judge 
for  yourself." 

That  lady,  once  more  picturesque  in  her  cashmere 
breakfast-robe,  occupied  a  chair  at  a  small  writing  table 
or  table-desk,  in  the  room  next  the  invalid's,  and  the 
nurse  stood  before  her. 

"You  say,  though,"  continued  she,  watching  Mrs. 
Dedley 's  staid  face,  "  that  you  feel  sure  of  the  truth  of 
this  story,  and  that  you  are  certain  the  watch  was  stolen 
from  you." 

"  From  all  the  circumstances,  Ma'am,  I  must  think  so." 

"  It  is  strange !"  remarked  Mrs.  Aster,  pensively. 
Then,  with  something  of  severity  in  her  tone  and  look 
— "  I  am  sorry  you  told  Miss  Lardner  what  you  did  :  for 
she  and  her  father  will  now  be  vexing  Mr.  Aster  afresh. 
You  took  a  great  liberty." 

"  My  only  object,  Ma'am,  was  to  get  her  to  say  some- 
thing about  the  family  of  the  poor  woman  who  died  in 
the  hospital.  I  heard-  what  she  said  of  them  to  Mr. 
Aster,  and  thought  it  might  be  no  harm  to  ask  her  more. 
She  could  not  have  been  much  offended,  Ma'am  ;  for  she 
thanked  me." 


ME.    STALKER   IS   FINALLY   DISMISSED.  203 

"  That,  you  say,  was  after  you  had  described  the  pick- 
pocket to  her  ?" 

"  Yes  Ma'am." 

"  She  imagined,  I  suppose,"  said  the  lady,  with  a  con- 
temptuous little  laugh,  "  that  your  description  of  the  man 
at  once  cleared  another  person  of  all  suspicion.  She  can't 
be  very  bright,  I'm  afraid,  if  she  thinks  a  person  like  that 
would  take  to  stealing  without  some  attempt  at  disguise. 
Especially  when  she  knows  that  he  wears  a  kind  of  dis- 
guise even  now." 

"  Then  you  think,  Ma'am " 

"  I  say,"  interrupted  Mrs.  Aster,  laughing  again,  "  that 
it  would  be  perfectly  easy  for  any  dishonest  creature  to 
put  on  a  red  wig  and  beard  before  turning  highwayman. 
If  the  man  ever  was  decent,  he  is  the  more  likely  to  dis- 
guise his  person  before  resorting  to  crime ; — or,  at  any 
rate,  to  such  petty,  contemptible  crime  as  the  picking  of 
women's  pockets." 

"  It  seems  likely,"  was  the  laconic  assent. 

"  Certain,  you  might  almost  say.  But  Miss  Lardner 
and  her  father  have  now  secured  a  new  story,  as  they 
think,  and  will  worry  Mr.  Aster  with  it,  even  though 
he  were  dying.  You  see,  now,  how  imprudently  you 
have  acted.  If  you  had  only  waited  to  see  me,  first,  I 
should  have  advised  you  to  say  nothing  at  all  about  the 
watch.  They  will  probably  harass  you,  now,  as  well  as 
my  husband.  They  may  want  you  to  go  into  some  court, 
yet,  and  testify." 

"  Oh,  I  nope  not,  Mrs.  Aster  !"  exclaimed  the  nurse, 
trembling  nervously  and  looking  very  blank,  "  I  could 
never  do  that !" 

The  handsome  lady  in  the  chair  gave  a  little,  unpleas- 
ant laugh  once  more,  and  nodded  faintly  to  herself  as 


20A  ME.    STALKER    IS    FINALLY    DISMISSED. 

though  in  silent  acceptance  of  some  private  idea  which 
had  not  received  her  fullest  patronage  before. 

"  I  hope  not,  too  ;  for  that  would  make  the  whole  family 
disgrace  public."  And  she  added,  indifferently,  as  the 
nurse  turned  to  leave  the  room  :  "  My  son,  Doctor  Dan- 
forth,  was  here  last  night,  and  seemed  very  much  pleased 
to  hear  that  I  liked  you  so  well,  Mrs.  Dedley." 

"  God  bless  him,  Ma'am  !"  said  Mrs.  Dedley,  fervently; 
and  went,  to  be  a  closer  guard  than  ever  over  the  sick 
husband. 

It  is  an  unpopular  thing  to  say :  but  in  all  womanly 
character  there  is  a  strong  natural  tendency  to  what  is 
rudely  termed  Humbug,  and  the  most  stupendous  exem- 
pliners  thereof  are  generally  your  majestic,  or  Imposing, 
women.  That  queenly  creature,  whose  head  fully  attains 
the  height  which  the  tip-top  of  a  royal  crown  might  reach 
if  worn  by  the  average  of  her  sex  ;  whose  swelling  form 
always  presents  a  grand  sloping  and  retreating  outline 
distinctly  visible  and  individual  down  the  longest  per- 
spective of  women,  no  matter  what  other  form  of  human 
kind  may  stand  between  her  and  the  observer ;  whose 
walk  is  ever,  as  it  were,  from  a  throne-chair  to  receive 
the  last  inferior  person  presented  ;  is  invariably  a  marvel 
of  infinite  conscious  shams,  and  gives  at  least  half  her 
private  thoughts  to  the  most  tormenting  envy  of  women 
who  are  not  queenly.  Feeling  that  she  has  been  built, 
if  it  may  be  so  expressed,  for  the  Imposing  school,  and  is 
under  imperative  physical  obligation  to  pretend  a  serene 
spiritual  altitude  no  more  really  hers  than  the  most 
dumpy  matron's,  she  derives  much  of  her  final  apparent 
sense  of  superior  womanly  power  from  an  irrepressible 
contempt  for  those  surprisingly  numerous  social  compan- 
ions who  insist  upon  being  awed  by  her  ;   and  generally 


MR.    STALKER    IS    FINALLY   DISMISSED.  205 

marries  the  least  significant  of  men  at  last,  in  honest  pre- 
ference to  a  union  with  any  corresponding  Humbug  of 
the  masculine  sex.  Hence,  while  an  artist  in  novels  is 
describing  the  performances  of  one  of  these  imperious  and 
coldly  powerful  creatures,  he  often  chuckles  to  himself  in 
an  unseemly  manner,  and  facetiously  deprecates  his  own 
agency  in  making  her  appear  such  an  awfully  imperturb- 
able exception  to  every  rule  of  nature.  If  Mr.  Dickens 
did  not  find  vast  amusement  in  drawing  his  "  Lady  Ded- 
lock,"  he  was  singularly  blind  to  glaring  imposition  ;  but 
it  is  more  than  probable  that  he  did  laugh  cheerfully 
to  himself  many  a  time  over  her  parts  of  his  manuscript. 
It  has  been  shown  that  the  imposing  Mrs.  Aster  gave 
several  peculiar  little  laughs  during  her  brief  colloquy 
with  Mrs.  Dedley,  and  finally  nodded  significantly  to  her- 
self, as  who  should  say :  "  Of  course  you  are  afraid  to 
testify  in  court !"  Did  she  laugh  at  the  thought  of  any  hu- 
man being  pretending  to  thwart  her  schemes  with  contro- 
verting facts  ?  Did  she  nod  in  darkly  gratuiatory  acknowl- 
edgment of  her  own  subtle  power  in  mastering  and  prof- 
iting by  the  weak  points  of  all  around  her  ?  !Not  at  all ! 
She  laughed  contemptuously,  not  to  say  blood-curdlingly, 
and  nodded  faintly,  not  to  say  ominously,  simply  because 
it  had  become  a  habit  with  her  to  do  these  crushing  things 
whenever  her  actual  clear  ideas  were  humiliatingly  scarce  ! 
By  her  Imposing  physical  aspect,  and  that  inconvenient  in- 
sisting-upon  Purpose  of  her  mouth  and  chin,  she  had,  long 
ago,  been  forced  into  all  the  conventional  shams  required 
by  those  tyrannical  involuntary  appearances ;  and  it  may 
be  questioned  whether  her  whole  character  as  a  trampler 
upon  others  was  not  as  much  clue  to  this  tyranny  of  phys- 
ical circumstance  over  herself,  as  to  any  particularly  sinis- 
ter tendency  of  her  spiritual  nature. 


206  MR.    STALKER   IS    FINALLY   DISMISSED. 

She  was  expecting  Mr.  Stalker  every  moment  after  the 
nurse  had  retired,  and,  in  her  genuine  woman-nature, 
dreaded  him  as  fairly  as  Miss  Lardner  might  have  dread- 
ed such  a  visitor  :  yet  must  she  meet  that  man  as  a  daunt- 
less and  Imposing  woman,  whose  long  course  of  Imposing- 
ness  had  such  an  obligation  for  one  of  its  indirect  conse- 
quences ;  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  prolonged  prac- 
tice gave  her  a  certain  exceptional  self-control  for  the 
sham. 

He  came  in  at  last,  ushered  by  a  circumspect  servant, 
with  all  a  man's  evident  consciousness  of  the  peculiar 
magnetism  of  such  a  woman ;  but  he  was  self-possessed, 
too,  and  took  the  chair  indicated  by  a  motion  of  her  hand 
with  a  certain  briskness  indicating  plenty  of  subordinate 
confidence  in  himself. 

"A  fine,  bracing  day,  Madam,"  he  remarked,  with- 
drawing his  gloves  ;  "  but  a  hard  one  for  the  poor.  If  I 
had  plenty  of  money,  I  think  I  should  work-up  a  few  des- 
titute families  and  send  them  some  coal  for  Christmas." 

"  Did  you  understand  my  note  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Aster, 
going  at  once  to  business. 

"  I  got  the  blank  card  in  an  envelope,  which  you  once 
arranged  should  mean  a  call  from  you,  Ma'am,"  answered 
he,  "  and  was  happy  to  understand  from  it  that  you  had 
overlooked  my  hasty  conduct  when  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
waiting  on  you  last  time." 

"  That  would  have  been  the  very  last  time,  Mr.  Stalk- 
er, had  it  not  been  for  certain  things  in  my  own  conduct 
then  which  might  have  led  you  to  think  there  was 
yet  some  likelihood  of  your  services  being  still  farther 
needed.  I  wish  you  to  realize  distinctly  and  finally  now 
that  you  are  dismissed  from  all  interest  in  any  matter  con- 
cerning this  family,  and  must  never  come  here  again." 
wM 


MR.    STALKER   IS   FINALLY   DISMISSED.  207 

"  If  that's  your  wish,  Mrs.  Aster,"  returned  Mr.  Stalk- 
er, with  an  injured  but  respectful  air,  u  I've  no  particular 
care  to  come  again ;  but  I'm  sorry  you've  got  to  say  it  as 
though  I  was  some  servant  being  discharged  for  stealing 
from  you  :  that's  all." 

u  You  have  not  been  an  efficient  servant,"  observed  the 
lady,  coolly  accepting  the  term,  "  and  I  might  have  dis- 
pensed with  your  services  at  an  earlier  day  on  that  ground 
alone.  You  have  not  shown  the  skill  with  which  both  Mr. 
Aster  and  myself  credited  you  on  your  own  showing,  at 
first.  But  no  matter  about  that  just  now.  You  need  not 
come  again;"  and  she  turned  toward  the  desk,  as  though 
assured  that  he  would  go. 

"  Stop  a  minute,  Madam,"  exclaimed  the-  detective, 
still  respectful.  "  What  have  I  done  unskillfully  ?  Hav'n't 
I  put  a  brand  on  a  man  you  wanted  branded  ?  It's  a 
thousand  times  more  to  do  that  than  to  hunt  down  the 
smartest  real  thief  that  ever  came  here  from  England. " 

"What  do  you  call  a  brand  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Aster,  turn- 
ins;  toward  him  asfain.  "  The  owner  of  that  stolen  watch 
is  now  in  this  house,  and  has  described  to  John  Aster's 
friends  the  person  of  the  real  pickpocket.  Those  friends 
know  the  old  man  who  recovered  the  watch,  thinking  it 
his ;  and,  at  any  time,  the  whole  matter  may  be  taken 
into  some  court.  You  have  not  half  done  your  work,  I 
tell  you." 

Mr.  Stalker  seemed  momentarily  nonplussed  by  the  in- 
formation, and  rubbed  his  nose  discomfitedly. 

"  Who  could  foresee  such  a  turn  as  that  ?"  he  said, 
lamely. 

"  I  thought  -it  was  a  part  of  your  business  to  foresee 
some  things,"  retorted  the  lady,  giving  signs  that  she  was 
tired  of  talking. 


208  ME.    STALKER   IS   FINALLY    DISMISSED. 

"  Well,  suppose  it  does  come  into  court,"  urged  the 
detective,  confident  with  a  new  idea, — "  suppose  it  does? 
The  old  man  swears  the  watch  isn't  his;  your  person, 
here,  swears  to  the  property ;  the  policeman  who  made 
the  arrest,  and  the  old  man,  and  I,  swear  that  the  watch 
was  found  upon  young  John.  If  your  person  knew  the 
thief  why  wasn't  he  stopped  ?  A  likely  story,  thinks  the 
magistrate !  I  don't  see' that  the  game  is  up  at  all,  Mrs. 
Aster ;  for  all  the  proof  is  on  our  side,  yet." 

"  We'll  not  talk  about  it  any  longer,"  said  Mrs.  Aster, 
peremptorily.  "  I  choose  to  retain  my  own  opinion.  You 
should  also  understand,"  she  added,  favoring  him  with  an 
angry  look,  "  that  the  threats  you  had  the  insolence  to 
make  the  other  day — and  which  should  have  prevented 
my  toleration  of  your  presence  here  again — are  vain  im- 
pertinences. I  have  related  them  to  my  son,  and  he 
would  resent  them  in  a  proper  manner  if  I  said  the  word. 
That  is  all  I  have  to  say  to  you." 

She  arose,  as  she  spoke,  and  went  toward  the  bell-rope 
with  the  apparent  purpose  of  ringing ;  but  a  movement 
and  look  of  her  inefficient  servant  restrained  the  uplifted 
hand.  He,  also,  left  his  chair,  and,  while  pretending  to 
arrange  some  papers  in  his  hat,  eyed  her  with  a  kind  of 
glowering,  bull-dog  resentment. 

"  This  is  my  final  dismissal,  is  it,  Ma'am  ?" 

A  haughty  inclination  of  her  head  was  his  only  an- 
swer. 

"  I  take  it,  then,  just  as  yon  give  it.  You  make  an  insult 
of  it  that  I  haven't  provoked — not  to-day,  anyhow, — and 
I'll  take  it  and  wonH  pocket  it.  Now  look  here,  Mrs. 
Aster — "  he  contracted  his  brows,  and  beat  time  with  a 
finger  pointed  at  her — "  if  you  treat  a  man  like  a  dog,  you 
mus'n't  be  surprised  if  he  acts  up  to  that  character ;  and 


MR.    STALKER   IS   FINALLY   DISMISSED.  209 

if  I  barked  when  I  was  here  before,  I'll  bite,  one  of  these 
days. — " 

She  pulled  the  bell-cord  on  the  instant,  and  fixed  her 
attention  exclusively  upon  the  door. 

"  Very-  well !  very  well !"  he  blustered,  in  haste,  "  you're 
bold  over  me  to  the  last.  But,  as  sure  as  my  name's  Stalk- 
er, I'll  be  even  with  you  for  it !  Mark  my  words,  I'  11  make 
you  repent  this  day.  I  happen  to  know — "  the  sum- 
moned servant  at  the  door  threw  him  instantaneously 
back  into  his  smooth  professional  manner — "what  you 
wish  to  find  out,  Mrs.  Aster.  Thank  you.  Good  day, 
Ma'am ;"  and  he  retired  deferentially,  as  though  just 
favored  with  a  tradesman's  commission. 

Left  to  herself,  the  indomitable  lady  walked  heavily, 
with  drooping  head,  to  her  chair  again ;  sat  languidly 
down,  and,  with  elbows  on  the  writing-table,  covered  her 
face  with  her  hands.  Thus  she  remained,  nearly  motion- 
less, for  ten  good  minutes ;  at  the  expiration  of  which 
time,  when  she  arose  a  second  time  and  went  to  a  mirror 
between  the  windows,  her  countenance  looked  strangely 
worn  and  older.  Looking  in  the  glass,  she  beheld  the 
incongruity  of  an  ordinary  troubled  woman's  haggard 
expression  of  features,  and  a  queenly,  Imposing  woman's 
tall  and  stately  form :  whereupon  her  practical  sense  of 
propriety  triumphed  over  all  unqueenly  weakness,  and  a 
few  magical  passes  of  a  forefinger  along  the  dark,  smooth 
bands  of  hair  across  her  brow  made  her  fit  once  more  for 
the  homage  of  this  sham-loving  world.  An  inch  to  a 
woman's  stature  and  a  finger's  length  to  the  lace  of  her 
bust,  are  sometimes  all  the  distance  between  the  honest 
truth  she  might  have  been  and  the  artful  falsehood  she  is. 


210  A   FEW   CANARY    SEEDS   OF    COMFORT. 

XXY. 

A    FEW    CANARY    SEEDS    OF   COMFORT. 

HAD  Miss  Dollie  known  how  to  faint,  she  would 
have  celebrated  the  first  home-meeting  of  her 
father  and  her  lover  by  a  first-class  performance  in  that 
line ;  for  the  parent's  greeting  was  so  uniquely  unfavor- 
able to  the  prospects  of  Hymen,  and  the  cavalier's  retreat 
so  unlike  the  general  rampancy,  and  tearing-around  of 
Innocence  unjustly  accused,  that  the  average  sweetheart 
would  have  taken  the  combined  blights  as  something 
more  than  she  could  stand,  and  so  would  have  logically 
fallen.  Sound  health,  however,  and  ingenuous  abstinence 
from  tight-lacing,  made  this  wholesome  maiden  undra- 
matically  firm  upon  her  feet  under  the  sharpest  trials, 
and  when  Geoffrey  Dapple  turned  to  question  her,  after 
Aster's  disappearance,  she  met  his  sternly  searching 
look  with  nerves  none  the  less  true  because  her  cheeks 
were  like  the  lily: 

"  What  has  He  been  doing  here  ?"  asked  the  Toyman, 
panting.  "  Quick  !"  he  exclaimed,  striking  the  counter 
with  his  fist ;  for  she  hesitated.  "  Tell  me  what  business 
a  daughter  of  mine  has  with  an  escaped  pickpocket — 
quick  ! — quick  ! — " 

u  He's  my — my — the  young  man  I  knew  at  boarding- 
school,"  stammered  the  girl. 

"  He's  a  disguised  thief,  I  tell  you  !  and  there's  no 
shame  left  in  you  !"  thundered  Geoffrey,  pounding  the 
counter  like  a  madman. 

"He  is  no  thief,  Father  !  You  don't  know  what  you 
say  to  me,"  returned  Dollie,  flushing  furiously. 


A   FEW   CANARY    SEEDS    OF   COMFORT.  211 

Here  a  third  speaker  struck  in  quickly — Doctor  Canary, 
who  had  advanced  unnoticed  from  the  back-room. — 

"If  you'll  excuse  me,  Mr.  Dapple,  I'll  remind  you  that 
you  discredited  that  young  man's  guilt,  yourself,  in  the 
court-room.  I  followed  you  in  there,  if  you  remember, 
after  the  policeman  had  ordered  me  to  move  off  with  my 
wagon ;  and  you  said,  when  the  prisoner  appealed  directly 
to  you,  that  you  made  no  charge  against  him." 

As  always  at  the  sound  of  that  voice,  though  its  words 
were  ever  so  friendly,  the  Toyman  lapsed  at  once  into 
sullen  silence. 

"  I'm  sure  the  watch  came  to  him  honestly,"  added 
Dollie.  "  He  is  a  gentleman  cruelly  ill-treated  by  his 
relations ;  and  you,  Father,  by  your  mistake  about  that 
hateful  watch,  have  plunged  him  into  disgrace.  I  think 
you  might  take  it  back  to  the  Judge,  and  say  it  isn't 
yours,  and  clear  him  !" 

"  You'll  drive  me  to  a  Judge,  yet — between  you !" 
was  Geoffrey's  hoarse,  unexpected  response;  and,  mut- 
tering to  himself,  he  passed  hurriedly  on  to  the  room 
beyond. 

The  next  morning  after  this  it  was,  that  Miss  Lardner 
called  ;  and,  in  Dollie's  pleasant  little  room  upstairs,  the  two 
fair  champions  of  the  clouded  young  Aster  told  each  other 
all  they  knew  about  him,  and  passed  a  unanimous  resolution 
that  he  should  be  sustained  under  every  eclipse.  It  has 
been  shown  how  the  rich  man's  daughter  gained  curious 
and  agreeable  information  by  her  visit  to  Jenkins  Place 
that  afternoon  ;  but  Miss  Dapple  still  lingered  in  the  par- 
tial darkness  which  had  been  dispensed  by  the  hapless 
young  man  himself,  nor  enjoyed  the  comfort  of  being  able 
to  do  anything  practical  for  his  righteous  cause. 

A  "revival  "  was  in  progress  at  the  church  where  the 


212  A   FEW   CANARY    SEEDS   OF   COMFORT. 

Toyman's  daughter  had  found  so  much  consolation  before, 
and  thither  she  went  on  the  night  after  her  old  school- 
mate's visit,  to  gain  that  strength  of  heart  which  is  cer- 
tainly given  to  some  worthy  young  women  by  a  sense  of 
religious  forms  subserved.  Closely  veiled,  and  plainly 
dressed,  she  meekly  sought  a  retired  seat  under  the  gal- 
lery, and  had  scarcely  settled  herself  therein  when,  to  her 
unspeakable  surprise,  she  saw  Doctor  Canary  gravely 
passing  to  a  place  on  the  second  row  ahead  of  hers,  his 
eyes  decorously  unobservant,  and  his  general  bearing  that 
of  a  deacon.  What  could  he  be  doing  there  ?  and  would 
he  see  her  ?  were  two  worldly  questions  which  at  once 
threatened  to  make  her  devout  aspirations  but  fitful  for 
that  evening ;  and  strive  to  avoid  them  as  she  might,  they 
still  drew  her  natural  attention  from  the  good  minister 
above  her  to  the  familiar  figure  before  her. 

Upon  the  conclusion  of  the  services,  which,  owing  to 
the  slow  speech  of  certain  impromptu  exhorters,  were 
protracted  to  near  midnight,  Dollie  made  a  lively  effort 
to  reach  the  door  without  recognition,  hoping  to  flit 
homeward  as  she  had  come  ;  but  a  sudden  realization  of 
the  lateness  of  the  hour,  and  the  presence  on  the  imme- 
diate sidewalk  of  various  elegant  young  men  of  the  dollar- 
jewelry  circles,  made  her  shrink  for  a  moment,  and 
thereby  fall  under  the  protection  of  the  ex-Odontolator. 

Without  a  word  he  drew  her  arm  within  his,  as  on  a 
former  occasion,  and  escorted  her,  not  so  reluctant  as  she 
might  have  been,  through  the  dazzling  ranks  of  the  dol- 
lar-jewelers. Once  past  those  Apollos  of  the  servant- 
girls,  however,  he  made  himself  appropriately  agreeable, 
and  commented  briefly  on  what  they  had  just  heard  in  a 
manner  indicative  of  as  much  moral  refreshment  as  the 
best  of  men  could  have  received. 


A   FEW    CAXAIIY    SEEDS   OF   COMFORT.  213 

"  But  I  may  as  well  admit  at  once,"  lie  quickly  added, 
"  that  I  came  here  to-night  on  your  account  again,  Miss 
Dollie.  It  was  my  only  immediate  opportunity  to  speak 
with  you  alone,  and  I  had  to  take  advantage  of  it  without 
asking  permission." 

"  I  wish  you  had  come  for  a  Higher  purpose,  Doctor 
Canary,"  was  Dollie's  desperate  attempt  to  say  the  sage 
thing. 

"  I  came,"  said  Canary,  with  some  emphasis,  "  to  alle- 
viate, so  far  as  I  may,  the  troubles  of  the  only  human 
beings  I  have  present  ability  to  benefit ;  and  regard  that 
as  about  as  good  a  purpose  as  one  can  take  to  church, 
even.  Our  interview  must  be  short,  and  you  should  ex- 
cuse my  going  straight  to  the  point.  I  recognized  that 
young  man  in  the  store  yesterday.  Of  course  he  is  a 
friend  of  yours  ?" 

"  Ye-s,"  said  she,  faintly. 

"  You  don't  credit  his  guilt :  neither  do  I.  You 
should  know,  however,  before  speaking  about  him  to  your 
father  again,  that  the  watch  was,  certainly,  not  his,  who- 
ever the  true  owner  was." 

"  O,  Doctor  Canary  !  you  can't  mean " 

"  JSTo  ;  not  that.  I  saw  the  whole  thing,  in  both  street 
and  court.  The  young  man — he  was  a  sailor  then — 
pulled  out  the  watch  from  his  pocket  with  his  handker- 
chief, and  was  dumbfounded  by  the  discovery.  He  was 
unwise  to  give  his  real  name  in  court  to  that  detective, 
(your  father  told  you  all  about  it,  I  suppose,)  for  there 
was  no  call  for  it." 

"  He  was  too  Proud  to  deny  it !"  ejaculated  Dollie. 

K  That  was  it,  eh  ?"  answered  Canary,  with  a  smile  in 
his  voice.  "  But  this  is  what  I  wish  to  tell  you  particu- 
larly :  From  my  wagon  that  day,  I  had  my  eyes  on  every 


214  A    FEW    CANARY    SEEDS    OF   COMFORT. 

man  and  boy  in  the  crowd,  to  pick  out  the  characters 
most  likely  to  come  up  to  my  chair  and  let  me  try  my 
tooth-powder  upon  them.  I  saw  a  rough-looking,  red- 
haired  fellow  skulking  about  the  sailor,  while  I  was  recit- 
ing my  doggerel,  and  believed  that  he  was  trying  to  sound 
the  sailor's  pockets.  The  same  fellow  broke  through  the 
crowd  at  the  first  outcry,  in  pretended  pursuit  of  an  offi- 
cer. He  was  the  thief,  Miss  Dollie,  and  slipped  the 
watch  into  the  sailor's  pocket ;  though  why  he  did  that, 
I  can't  comprehend." 

"  It  was  a  plot  against  Mr.  Aster  by  his  bad  relations," 
certified  Dollie,  making  one  of  those  entirely  unreasoning 
jumps  at  a  truth  which  have  done  so  much  for  the  repu- 
tation of  Woman's  Wit,  as  it  is  called. 

"  I  am  sure  there  was  some  intelligence  between  the 
rough  fellow  and  that  officious  detective,"  said  Canary, 
musingly.  "  However,  I've  no  business  with  the  matter, 
except  to  tell  you  what  I  have  told. — By  the  way,  I'm 
returning  good  for  evil  here,  Miss  Dapple ;  for  your 
friend  rather  unnecessarily  knocked  me  down  in  his  final 
escapade !" 

"  Doctor  Canary,"  said  Dollie,  in  a  low,  earnest  tone, 
"  I  can't  thank  you  too  much  for  your  unvarying  thought- 
fulness  for  me,  and  the  delicacy  with  which  you  have 
treated  both  Father  and  myself  ever  since — that  is.  of 
late.  I  do  sincerely  believe  that  you  mean  to  be  a  real 
friend  to  us." 

"  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  that,  Miss  Dapple.  I 
wish  I  could  win  your  still  better  opinion  by  withdrawing 
altogether  from  a  relation  into  which,  in  a  time  of  des- 
perate and  degrading  fortune,  I  forced  myself  by  villain- 
ous means.  But,  do  you  know,"  and  his  voice  became 
deprecatingly  regretful  in  its  sound, — "  I  am  really  afraid 


A  FEW  CAXAEY  SEEDS  OF  COMFOET.        215 

to  leave  your  Father  now  !  His  diseased  mind  lias  been 
so  affected  by  my  first  coming ;  so  possessed  by  the  actu- 
ally insane  idea  of  my  power  to  do  him  some  deadly 
injury ;  that  no  excuse  for  withdrawing  which  I  could 
possibly  devise  would  fail  to  drive  him  into  some  mad 
freak  of  nervous  terror.  You  see  how  he  perverts  all 
that  I  can  say  or  do  ?  It  is  one  of  the  most  awful  char- 
acteristics of  Evil,  that  when  a  man  has  once  rashly 
called  it  to  his  aid,  it  clutches  him  with  a  thousand  claws, 
and  holds  him  to  his  unholy  bargain  to  the  last."  He 
sighed,  unconsciously,  before  adding  :  "  I  have  made — am 
makings  rather, — all  the  atonement  I  can.  I  stay  with 
you,  as  clerk,  only  to  save  your  Father  from  the  worst 
result  of  the  great  injury  I  have  done  him." 

"  You  are  nothing  but  our  friend  now,"  was  all  the 
reply  Dollie  could  trust  herself  to  make.  She  fully 
meant  that  much,  though. 

"  May  I  advise  you,  then,  once  more  ?" 

"  Certainly,  Doctor  Canary.     I  trust  you  fully  now." 

"  A  thousand  thanks  for  that,  my  good  girl.  If  the 
oharity  and  trust  shown  me  by  you,  had  been  given  in 
past  days  of  mine  by  those  from  whom  it  was  far  more 
my  due,  I  should  never  have  sunk  to — I  never  should 
have  given  you  so  much  better  cause  to  deny  them  to 
me."  He  paused  ;  and  then  said,  with  a  hasty  resump- 
tion of  his  livelier  demeanor :  "  I  must  counsel  you  to 
say  nothing  more  to  your  Father  about  the  watch  just 
yet.  You  saw  how  he  took  what  I  said  yesterday.  Re- 
member his  condition  of  mind." 

"  And  must  Mr.  Aster  be  left  under  that  dreadful 
suspicion  ?"  murmured  the  maiden,  disconsolately. 

"  For  a  while,  I'm  afraid." 

u  Can't  you  do  anything,  Doctor  Canary  ?" 


216  A   FEW   CANARY    SEEDS    OF   COMFORT. 

"  I  could  go  before  Mr.  Justice  O'Blackstone  and  tes- 
tify to  what  I  saw  from  the  wagon." 

"  And  that  would  clear  him —  ?" 

"  Taken  with  other  circumstances  it  might,— and  leave 
him  to  answer  for  assaulting  an  officer  in  his  escape." 

"  Oh,  that  would  be  nothing  !"  exclaimed  Dollie,  san- 
guinely. 

They  were  strolling  very  slowly  along,  with  heads 
pretty  closely  together  ;  and  a  skulking,  homeless-looking 
walker  of  the  street,  not  half  a  block  behind,  may  have 
taken  them  for  lovers. 

"Nothing  so  disgraceful,"  assented  Doctor  Canary, 
slowly.  "  But  just  consider  this,  Miss  Dollie :  if  your 
Father  were  an  ordinary  man,  his  having  so  long  kept  a 
watch  not  his  own  might  prove  an  awkward  circumstance 
for  himself ;  as  he  is  a  sick,  a  mentally  diseased  man,  it 
would  kill  him  to  go  into  a  court  for  any  purpose.  I'm 
afraid. you  must  temporize  yet  awhile." 

"  Yes  ;  you  are  right,"  sighed  the  girl. 

"  If  you'll  bear  in  mind  what  you  have  hinted  to  me — 
that  some  family-  persecution  may  be  at  the  bottom  of 
this  whole  singular  affair,  it  should  occur  to  you  that 
Mr.  Aster  does  not  owe  his  trouble  to  your  Father,  and, 
with  his  present  knowledge,  can  not  expect  your  Father 
to  do  much  in  the  matter.     Let  that  be  your  comfort." 

Then,  as  they  were  within  two  blocks  of  home,  this 
oddly-secured  friend  significantly  took  leave  of  the  grate- 
ful, though  silent,  girl,  as  though  his  way  parted  from 
hers  there  ;  and  she,  fully  understanding  the  kindly  pur- 
pose thus  tacitly  subseiwed,  hastened  onward  alone. 

It  would  seem  scarcely  worth  while,  and  almost  too 
preraphaelitish,  to  note  the  petty  details  of  separate  peo- 
ple going  prosily  into  an  old  wooden  house  late  at  night 


A    MAX    AXD   MEN.  217 

for  no  more  romantic  purpose  than  of  merely  retiring  to 
rest ;  yet  it  is  the  whim  of  this  narrator  to  say,  that — first 
Miss  Dapple  let  herself  in  at  the  house-door,  with  her 
own  night-key  ;  then,  in  ten  minutes  after,  Doctor  Cana- 
ry admitted  himself  at  the  same  door,  with  his  night-key ; 
and,  last  of  all,  later  by  about  two  minutes  than  the  latest, 
a  slouching  figure  of  a  crazy  Toyman  admitted  itself  to 
the  store,  with  the  store-key. 


XXVI. 


A   MAN   AND   MEN. 


aO  into  ecstacies,  all  ye  tradesman-snobs  and  Snob- 
esses,  all  ye  Wall  Street  upstarts  and  Upstartesses, 
all  ye  banking  and  railroading  mushrooms  and  Mush- 
roomesses, — for  that  fatal  Lardner  is  giving  a  party  to- 
night, and  madly  intends  to  expose  himself  again  by 
appearing  temporarily  forgetful  of  Hides.  Rejoice,  then, 
with  exceeding  great  joy,  ye  unintellectual  lacquies,  and 
go  to  the  idiotic  show  in  all  the  shop-keeping  pomp  of 
shoddy ; — what  time  that  Great  American  Author,  Byron 
Cox,  Esquire,  lounges  in  sarcastic  gloom  at  the  sign  of 
"  The  Perfect  Trust,"  and  moistens  neglected  genius  with 
lonely  beer.  The  sum  of  money  being  wasted  this  night, 
that  vulgar  money-changers  may  forget  their  native  coun- 
ters and  shelves  and  absurdly  attempt  to  show  an  intelli- 
gence for  what  they  were  never  born  to,  would  secure  the 
publication  of  that  Xew  Work  of  Mr.  Cox's  which  all 
10    - 


218  A  MAN    AND   MEN. 

the  ignorant  publishers  have  besottedly  refused,  and  pay 
for  enough  advertisement  of  it  in  the  great  daily  journals 
to  make  those  noble  cemeteries  of  genius  rear  columns  in 
its  praise.  But  what  care  ye  for  that,  Lardners  all !  "What 
care  ye,  in  your  tawdry  assumption  of  airs  at  which  your 
butcher-boy,  shoe-cobbling,  codfish-selling  ancestors  might 
blush  in  their  graves,  if  the  young  Cox's  heart  is  breaking 
and  the  bar-keeper  knocking  for  his  money? — What's 
that  you  say  ? — He  is  hiccupping  at  this  very  moment  ? 
— Ha ! — But  let  it  pass. 

On  that  night  (to  conveniently  change  the  tense  and 
regain  our  composure  thereby)  the  Lardner  halls  sparkled 
with  the  bad  taste  of  three  hundred  mercantile  forgetters 
of  their  grandfathers ;  some  of  whom  balanced,  swayed 
and  whirled  to  the  immoral  music  of  Offenbach ;  while 
others  grouped,  knotted,  and  strayed  to  and  fro  along  the 
walls,  in  kaleidoscopic  changes  which  were  but  poor  imi- 
tations of  what  Mr.  Cox  once  saw  in  a  genuine  European 
gathering.  Such  feminine  toilets  were  there  as  would 
make  a  man  of  mind  hold  his  head  to  tell  where  they 
commenced,  and  cover  his  face  to  see  where  they  ended. 
— Such  a  satin,  or  silk,  this  thing ;  and  lace  drooping  so- 
and-so  over  that ;  and  a  panniered  what-you-call-it 
pinned  with  rosebuds  and  leaves  over  that ;  and  a  French- 
something  waist  over  that ;  and  shoulders,  and  castles  in 
the  hair  over  that — 

"In  diamond-powder,  plumes,  and  glistening  things, 
Queens  without  crowns,  and  angels  without  wings." 

Such  young  masculine  toilets  were  there  as  would  fire 
the  sanguine  imagination  with  a  first  clue  to  something 
very  faintly  military,  only  to  send  it  miserably  wool-gath- 
ering at  last  on  a  straggling  man-millinery  line  of  conclu- 


A   MAN   AND   MEN.  219 

Bion. — Such  blue  dress-coats  with  brass  buttons  and  white 
satin  linings ;  pink  silk  under-vests,  and  black  inexpressi- 
bles of  a  tightness  to  make  tongs  seem  fleshy;  white 
gloves  laced  at  the  cuffs,  and  hair  parted  in  the  mid- 
dle— 

"Straight  as  the  soldier,  supple  as  the  Knight, 
Alert  alike  for  glove  or  sword  to  fight." 

Under  chandelier  systems  of  blazing  planets,  and  be- 
tween Tropics  of  vased  and  columned  leaves  and  flowers, 
these  queens,  angels,  soldiers  and  knights  were  either 
dancing  or  talking  to  music,  when  the  gazelle-like  Mr. 
Brown,  of  Grace  Church,  who  officiated  as  King  of  the 
Front  Stoop,  made  a  mild  effort  to  delay  the  entrance  of 
an  imposing  figure  in  sombrero  and  cloak. 

"I  beg  your  pardon,  sir  ;  but  who — " 

"  Assster !"  hissed  a  scornful  voice,  while  a  wing-like 
flourish  of  the  cloak  seemed  to  add — "of  the  Library  of 
that  name."  And,  before  farther  parley  could  be  had, 
the  haughty  young  man  strode  bitterly  into  the  princely 
mansion  and  went  fiercely  up  the  sumptuous  stairway  in 
a  tongs-like  manner. 

The  liveried  servants,  at  their  posts  of  waiting  in  the 
hall  and  on  the  landing,  shrank  from  the  dark  vision,  and 
the  embittered  drayman  paused  not  until  the  aged  foot- 
man, Alphonse,  cowered  before  his  dreadful  eyeglasses  in 
an  upper  "  entry." 

"  Johnny,"  said  Mr.  Aster,  "  which  is  Lardner  s  room  ?" 

"M-M-Mr.  Lardner,  sir,  is  downstairs,"  stuttered  the 
servitor,  to  whom  the  speaker  was  a  perpetual  astonish- 
ment, u  and  if  you'd  be  pleased,  sir — " 

"Here!"  said  the  guest,  relaxing,  and  handing  him 
a  ten-cent    stamp.      "Probably   you're    underpaid   and 


220  A  MAN   AND  MEN. 

have  a  family.  Now  show  me  at  once  to  Lardner's 
room." 

Being  old,  without  firearms,  and  seeing  no  reinforce- 
ments near  at  hand,  the  almost  fainting  footman  pointed 
involuntarily  to  a  neighboring  door,  and  slowly  backed- 
away  down  the  passage. 

At  once  opening  the  door  indicated,  Mr.  Aster  passed 
into  a  large,  handsome  bedchamber,  and,  carefully  remov- 
ing hat  and  cloak,  placed  them  neatly  upon  Mr.  Lardner's 
couch.  Then,  advancing  to  the  toilet  bureau,  and  helping 
himself  to  comb  and  brush,  he  arranged  his  curly  black 
locks  in  a  style  at  once  forbidding  and  Byronic,  simulta- 
neously whistling  a  savage  air  from  African  minstrelsy 
as  though  in  contempt  of  the  strains  from  downstairs. 
This  concluded,  he  washed  his  hands,  brushed  his  coat 
with  the  hair-brush ;  and,  pulling  up  his  coat-sleeves  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  give  the  finish  of  his  rather  scanty 
shirt-cuffs  to  his  general  toilet,  went  down  to  the  company. 

It  is  a  common  delusion  with  those  who  go  to  fashion- 
able crushes  in  novels  alone,  that  a  notable  figure  always 
attracts  immediate  general  attention  on  such  occasions, 
everybody  gazing  at  it  with  insatiable  respectful  curiosity, 
and  the  heroine  with  a  simple  white  rose  in  her  hair  re- 
joicing that  she  has  not  contemplated  a  top-panel  of  the 
door  for  three  consecutive  hours  in  vain.  Some  such 
tribute  of  universal  respect  might  have  been  achieved 
by  Mr.  Aster  had  he  entered  the  brilliant  scene  walking 
on  his  hands,  or  mounted  upon  a  pair  of  stilts;  and  it  is 
possible  to  believe  that  his  discharge  of  a  pistol  in  the 
particular  doorway  by  which  he  arrived  might  have  drawn 
the  attention  of  Miss  Lardner  to  that  part  of  the  building; 
but  he  merely  stalked  in  with  his  hands  in  his  pockets, 
and  was  not  supernatural ly  visible  through  a  solid  thickness 


A    MAX    AND   MEN.  221 

of  some  eight  rows  of  full  toilets  ;  his  only  astonished  imme- 
diate admirers  were  some  eight  or  ten  middle-aged  gentle- 
men near  his  door,  and  Lucy  did  not  discover  his  presence 
until,  in  the  middle  of  a  quadrille,  she  caught  his  eye- 
glasses shining  upon  her  from  behind  the  marble  figure 
of  Psyche. 

"  Mr.  Aster,"  said  Mr.  Gayle,  soon  after  this  latter  inci- 
dent, advancing  with  extended  hand,  "  how  are  you  this 
evening,  Sir?" 

"  As  well,  Gayle,  as  a  slighted  man  can  feel,"  returned 
the  young  man,  refraining  for  a  moment  from  the  ab- 
stracted pastime  of  writing  his  name  on  Psyche's  leg  with 
a  stubby  bit  of  lead-pencil. 

"  Sorry  you  feel,  so,"  returned  the  fine  old  gentleman, 
growing  red  in  the  face  and  turning  inexplicably  gruff. 
"  Miss  Lardner  has  deputed  me,  Sir,  to  inform  you  that 
she  has  but  just  discovered  your  presence  here,  and  would 
be  happy  to  receive  you  on  the  other  side  of  the  room 
we  are  now  in." 

"  All  right,  Gayle.  Tell  her  I'll  be  there  in  a  minute," 
assented  the  drayman,  carefully  rubbing  out  his  last  signa- 
ture with  a  moistened  finger,  and  thereby  giving  Psyche's 
symmetrical  limb  a  lifelike  appearance  of  being  severely 
bruised. 

"  I  must  beg,  Mr.  Aster,  that  you  convey  your  own 
message,"  observed  Mr.  Gayle,  with  much  stiffness ;  and 
immediately  walked  away. 

"  That's  because  I  am  Poor  !"  muttered  Aster,  looking 
resentfully  after  him.  Then,  rising  too  far  upon  his  tip- 
toes, to  discern  his  fair  cousin,  he  fell  partially  into  the 
arms  of  the  rich  Mr.  Sniffers,  and  simultaneously  asked 
him  :  "  Where's  Lucy  ?" 

The  rich  man  pushed  him  up  again  with  great  heat, 


222  A   MAN   AND   MEN. 

eyed  him  contemptuously  an  instant,  said  :  "  In  the  kitch- 
en probably,"  and  hurried  on. 

"  Insult  upon  insult,"  thought  the  sensitive  being,  more 
embittered  than  ever ;  "  and  all  because  my  nails  may  be 
rather  darker,  my  shirt-front  a  little  more  horsey  than 
theirs  !  So  be  it.  I'm  a  Man  and  will  even  act  like 
one."  Supremely  proud  in  this  inalienable  consciousness 
and  resolve,  he  promptly  passed  through  a  space  between 
two  ladies,  which  seemed  so  inadequately  narrow,  that 
the  ladies  themselves  couldn't  credit  it  until  they  suddenly 
found  themselves  back  to  back  when  they  had  formerly 
been  shoulder  to  shoulder;  he  walked  straight  on,  as 
through  an  open  country,  between  husband  and  wife, 
dancer  and  partner,  talker  and  talkee,  leaving  domestic 
and  social  alienation  behind  him  at  every  step  ;  and 
finally  found  himself  face  to  face  with  the  lovely  object 
of  his  jaunt. 

Seated  upon  a  sofa  beside  Mrs.  Thompson-Street,  and 
sharing  her  conversation  with  Mr.  Pamunkey,  who  hung 
over  the  back  of  the  gilt  and  ebony  throne,  Lucy  saw  the 
approaching  gentleman  as  he  was  divorcing  the  last  hus- 
band and  wife  on  his  route,  and  grew  uneasy  in  anticipa- 
tion of  a  storm. 

"  Miss  Lardner,"  he  said,  speaking  but  coldly,  yet  bow- 
ing so  low  over  her  jeweled  hand  that  his  stiff  black 
beaver  sack-coat  stuck  out  behind  like  a  gothic  doorway, 
"  I  am  happy  to  find  you  at  last,  like  Hope  at  the  bottom 
of  Pandora's  trunk.  Allow  me  to  offer  the  compliments 
of  the  season." 

As  it   did   not   happen  to   be  New- Year's  Day,  this 
last    sentence   had    a   certain   formal,   or   forced   poeti- 
cal, sound  "calculated  to  chill   the  warmer   currents   of 
familiar   friendship ;    but  his   amiable   cousin  welcomed 


A   MAN  AND  MEN.  223 

him  heartily,  and  introduced  him  to  the  hyphen ized 
lady. 

Momentarily  cheered  by  his  reception,  he  became 
sprightly — even  gracefully  witty,  and  bowed  to  the 
stately  dame. 

"  Happy  to  know  you,  Mrs.  Thompson-Street,"  he  said, 
with  engaging  ease  of  manner.  "  I  was  once  acquainted 
with  a  respectable  colored  family  that  lived  somewhere 
in  you." 

"  Sir  ?"  ejaculated  she  of  the  hyphen,  witheringly ; 
while  Lucy  turned  cold. 

"  Thompson  Street,  you  know : — crosses  Bleecker,"  ex- 
claimed Mr.  Aster,  with  intense  humor.  "  Play  on 
i  Thompson '  and  play  on  *  Street.'  Ha !  ha ! — Pamun- 
key,  just  bring  me  one  of  those  chairs  over  yonder." 

Both  Mrs.  Thompson-Street  and  Mr.  Pamunkey  turn- 
ed very  pale  and  trembled  excessively ;  but,  while  the 
entertaining  drayman,  believing  that  his  order  had  not 
been  heard,  went  moodily  after  a  chair  for  himself,  Lucy 
whispered  u  So  eccentric,  you  know.  Pray  don't  notice 
it,"  and  partially  restored  their  well-bred  composure. 

Returning  with  a  chair — which  he  had  obtained  by  the 
amusing  device  of  informing  a  weak-faced  young  man 
whom  he  found  occupying  it,  that  a  lady  in  a  blue  dress 
and  red  kid  shoes  was  anxiously  inquiring  for  him  in  the 
third  parlor, — Mr.  Aster  pkced  it  as  close  to  his  cousin  as 
he  could,  and,  tilting  gently  back  in  it,  surveyed  the 
crowded  carnival  of  the  great  rooms  with  much  critical 
dignity. 

"  Ladies,"  said  he,  taking  their  silence  for  respectful 
attention,  and  quite  ignoring  Mr.  Pamunkey, — u  Ladies, 
this  busy  scene  before  us  reminds  me  of  Xerxes,  who, 
when  surveying  his  vast  army,  asked — either  of  his  own 


224  A   MAN   AND   MEN. 

soul,  or  of  somebody  else ;  I'm  not  sure  which — "Where 
will  all  these  be  in  a  thousand  years  hence  ?" — Here  Mr. 
Aster  paused  to  let  their  minds  act — "  When  I  look  upon 
these  gaudy  myriads  here  before  us  now,  I  again  ask  my- 
self the  same  question  :  Where  will  they  all  be  in  a  thou- 
sand years  from  now  \  Where  f  " — He  uttered  the  word 
with  mournful  intensity,  paused  to  let  their  minds  act, 
and  then  said,  with  awful  distinctness,  "  N ot  One!" 
Again  he  paused,  and  shook  his  head  with  inconceivable 
mournfulness. — "  Dreadful  thought — Not  One  !"  Struck 
by  his  manner,  attitude,  and  blood-curdling  tones,  a  num- 
ber of  ladies  and  gentlemen  now  gathered  curiously  about 
the  sofa,  and  he  went  on :  "  If  we  think  of  this,  as  we 
look  at  this  busy  scene,  and  reflect  that  man  witkereth 
like  the  grasshopper,  how  can  we  avoid  asking  ourselves 
"What  is  Alan  ?*'  He  waited  to  let  their  minds  act,  and 
then  said,  solemnly  :  "  He  is  !"  (Here  the  sensation  be- 
came almost  painful,  several  persons  believing  that  they 
could  detect  a  shade  of  meaning  in  the  speaker's  words.) 
"  And  what  shall  we  say  of  Woman  r  continued  Mr. 
Aster,  willing  to  improve  their  understanding  so  far  as 
time  would  allow,  "  What  shall  we  say  of  man's  partner 
in  his  joys,  no  less  than  his  sorrow  ?  Wliere  will  She  be 
in  a  thousand  years  from  now  '(  Where?  "  He  seemed 
to  put  it  as  an  appalling  general  conundrum,  and  paused 
to  let  their  minds  act ;  then  dropped  his  voice  almost  to 
a  whisper — "  She  will  not  r 

Nothing  could  have  relieved  the  feelings  of  his  deeply- 
moved  auditors  at  this  terrible  moment  but  the  sudden 
dance-music  of  the  band ;  at  sound  of  which  Lucy  ar«  -se 
with  seeming  alacrity  (probably  she  feared  tears  if  she 
listened  longer)  and  rested  her  hand  upon  the  proffered 
arm  of  Mr.  Pamunkey. 


A    MAX    AXD    MEN.  225 

"  I  am  engaged  for  this  one,  Cousin  John,"  she  whis- 
pered, "  but  shall  expect  to  find  you  here  when  it's  over." 

The  stern  moralist  looked  blankly  after  her  and  the 
others,  as  they  thus  deserted  the  shrine  of  wisdom  for 
that  of  folly;  but  quickly  brought  his  bone  eyeglasses 
around  again  as  far  the  rigid  face  of  Mrs.  Thompson- 
Street. 

"  They  have  left  us  at  the  first  sound  of  Frivolity's 
horn,"  said  he,  in  an  entirely  new  poetical  figure  ;  u  and 
I  will  address  the  remainder  of  my  remarks  upon  Man  to 
you,  Madam." 

tt  Oh,  you  must  excuse  me,  Sir,"  exclaimed  the  lady, 
arising  in  great  haste,  "  I  see  my  husband  in  the  next  par- 
lor, and  "must  join  him." 

Thus  wholly  deserted  by  his  disciples,  the  drayman 
moved,  with  a  heavy  sigh,  from  the  chair  to  the  sofa  ; 
where,  with  his  figure  extended  at  full  length,  and  face 
upturned  to  the  ceiling,  he  abstractedly  played  a  tune  up- 
on his  teeth  with  an  open  blade  of  his  jackknife,  and  pre- 
sented to  many  astounded  passers-by  a  truly  remarkable 
spectacle  of  philosophical  absent-mindness.  Here  he 
rested,  unconsciously  exercising  a  powerful  fascination 
over  the  weak-faced  young  man,  who,  having  returned 
from  his  vain  and  toilsome  pursuit  after  the  lady  in  a  blue 
dress  and  red  kid  shoes,  now  stood  staring  stonily  at  him 
from  the  place  where  his  chair  had  been.  Here  he  re- 
posed in  misanthropical  reverie,  until  Lucy  came  back 
with  her  partner,  and,  after  sweetly  excusing  herself  to 
the  latter,  proceeded  to  rouse  him  from  his  dreams. 

*  Cousin  John,"  she  whispered,  '*  you're  the  most  ag- 
gravating man  I  ever  saw  !  Get  up  and  come  with  me  to 
the  Conservatory.     I've  something  to  tell  you." 

Slightly  dishevelled  in  aspect,  Mr.  Aster  slowly  arose  to 
10* 


226  A   MAN   AND  MEN. 

a  sitting  posture,  and  regarded  her  with  languid  indiffer- 
ence. 

"  Where's  your  Pamunkey  ?"  asked  he,  drearily.  "  Why 
don't  you  go  and  stay  with  your  Pamunkey  ?" 

u  Will  you  come  with  me  !"  exclaimed  Lucy,  very  near 
stamping  her  little  foot. 

Ascending  to  his  feet  as  though  slowly  pulled  up  by  a 
rope  around  his  neck,  the  young  man  allowed  her  to  ac- 
company him  in  the  way  he  should  go ;  his  heavy,  irreg- 
ular step,  and  general  appearance  of  having  just  got  up, 
creating  quite  a  little  nutter  of  comment  amongst  the 
observant  minority  of  the  company. 

An  evergreen  bower,  adorned  with  statuary,  flowers  and 
birds,  had  been  erected,  across  the  rear -part  of  the  hall, 
from  one  of  the  parlors  to  the  brilliantly-lighted  Conser- 
vatory, and,  upon  reaching  the  latter  through  it,  Lucy 
was  delighted  to  observe  that  none  of  the  guests  had  pre- 
ceded them  thither. 

"  Now,  while  they  are  all  dancing,  or  looking  on,"  she 
said,  seating  herself  in  a  rustic  settee  behind  a  tall  tropical 
tree,  and  pointing  her  cousin  to  a  chair  near-by, "  we  can 
have  a  little  quiet  chat  together.  Cousin  Jack,  you're  too 
ridiculous  !  What  did  you  mean,  Sir,  by  snubbing  poor 
Mr.  Gayle,  and  giving  that  perfectly  absurd  Essay  on 
Man  ?" 

She  certainly  was  a  lovely  girl.  Dressed  in  delicate 
blue,  lace,  and  pearls  ;  her  plentiful  blonde  locks  of  dusky 
gold  gathered  into  as  many  graceful  problems  as  there 
are  ideas  in  a  hair-artist's  head  ;  and  her  clear  red  and 
white  complexion  evolving  a  very  soul  of  sensitive  deli- 
cacy, she  was  assuredly  an  angel  without  wings. 

Mr.  Aster  drank  in  the  vision  now  until  his  very  eye- 
glasses seemed  melting  with  ecstatic  emotion,  and,  raising 


A   MAN   AND  MEN.  227 

her  hand  to  his  lips,  he  kissed  the  dainty  glove  with  a 
sound  like  the  quick  removal  of  a  plaster. 

"  Goodness !"  he  exclaimed,  licking  his  lips,  and  pro- 
ducing his  jackknife  again.  "  Don't  question  me  of  any- 
thing beyond  this  moment  I" 

"  What  are  you  doing  with  that  knife  ?"  asked  Lucy,  in 
alarm. 

"I  am  about,"  said  Aster,  opening  the  knife  and  rising, 
"  to  commemorate  this  exciting  moment.  Upon  the 
bark  of  this  aged  tree  our  joint  initials  shall  be  cut,  as  in 
ancient  fable." 

"  No,  Sir !"  ejaculated  Lucy,  hastily  restraining  his  arm. 
"  That  is  not  an  *  aged'  tree,  and  Pa  paid  several  hundred 
dollars  for  it.     You  shan't  touch  it  with  that  horrid  knife." 

c-  Then  let  me  cut  them  on  the  seat  of  the  settee,"  said 
Aster,  with  a  wild  gleam  of  hope. 

"  JSIo,  Cousin  Jack,  I  won't  have  you  cutting  the  Con- 
servatory to  pieces  at  all.  Now  please  put  up  that  ridic- 
ulous knife." 

Though  reluctantly  restoring  the  bauble  to  his  pocket, 
the  sensitive  drayman  could  beam  upon  her  no  longer. 
In  her  pretty  petulance  and  sudden  pretence  to  absolute 
command,  his  powerful  mind  discerned  that  disposition 
to  Take  Advantage  which,  alas !  so  often  possesses  wo- 
man when  she  imagines  herself  to  be  exceptionally  irre- 
sistible in  her  Best  Things,  and  he  saw  at  once  that  he 
must  take  her  down. 

"  The  term  '  ridiculous,'  "  said  he,  sourly,  "  is  offensive 
to  me,  and  must  not  be  repeated  during  the  interview  I 
have  granted  you.  I  may  be  Poor,"  he  continued,  bitter- 
ly ;  "  but  I'm  a  Man. — Do  you  understand,  girl, — a  Man  !" 

"  And  it  may  be  barely  possible  that  I  am  a  Woman," 
retorted  the  pouting  fair. 


228  A   MAN   AND   MEN. 

"  Come  !  no  sarcasm  with  me  !"  exclaimed  be,  passion- 
ately. "If  you  brought  me  here  for  that,  I'll  stay  no 
longer.     I'm  a  Man,  by  heavens  !" 

He  repeated  this  assertion  as  though  anxious  that  its 
darkly  original  significance  should  check  every  tendency 
to  irreverence,  and  smote  himself  upon  the  breast  in  a 
clothy  manner. 

"  I  might  survive  it,  if  you  didn't  stay,"  remarked 
Lucy,  with  a  rather  irritating  smile ;  and  began  humming 
the  air  sounding  from  the  quadrille  band. 

Mr.  Aster  promptly  walked  to  the  door  opening  into 
the  evergreen  bower,  locked  it,  and  returned. 

"  I'll  cut  off  some  of  that  disgusting  noise,"  he  growled. 
"  If  there  is  to  be  any  music  here,  I'll  make  it  myself. 
Let  me  hear  no  more  singing  either.  It  makes  my  head 
ache." 

Lucy  arose  with  marked  hauteur  from  the  settee,  and 
curled  her  exquisite  upper  lip  at  him  in  rebellious  disdain. 

"  I  can  forbear  much  with  your  eccentricity,  Mr.  Aster ; 
but  coarse  insult",  is  more  than  I  shall  endure.  Open  that 
door,  sir,  and  permit  me  to  retire." 

"  Lucy,"  said  Aster,  crossing  his  limbs,  and  gazing  up 
at  her  with  a  darkly  menacing  smile,  "  it  is  your  duty,  as 
a  woman,  to  love,  honor  and  obey.  Raise  your  voice  to 
me  again,  and  you  shall  never  be  my  Wife." 

"  Sir-r-r  !     Do  you  dare —  !" 

"  I  dare  do  all  that  may  become  a  Man,"  quoted  the 
irritable  drayman,  leaping  up  :  "who  dares  do  more  is  a 
nun."  Simultaneously  with  which  agitated  misconcep- 
tion of  Shakspere  he  fiercely  pressed  her  back  into  the 
settee  by  the  shoulders,  and  towered  imperiously  above 
her. 

As  she  stared  up  into  his  determined  countenance,  to 


A   MAN   AND   MEN.  229 

which  the  refracting  power  of  the  bone  eyeglasses  gave  a 
kind  of  four-eyed  expression,  the  light  of  defiance  gradu- 
ally faded  from  her  own  lovely  face,  and  she  became  weak 
woman  again. 

"  Please  sit  clown  again,  Cousin  John,"  she  pleaded, 
tremulously,  "and  let  me  tell  you  what  I  spoke  about. — 
Oh  dear !     I  didn't  mean  here." 

But  Mr.  Aster  had  sunk  down  beside  her  on  the  settee, 
and  thrown  his  long  right  arm  over  the  rustic  branch- 
work  behind  her. 

"  I'm  a  Man,"  he  muttered  abstractedly,  and  his  extend- 
ed arm  seemed  slipping  down. 

"  Please  don't." 

"Lucy,"  murmured  he,  growing  faint  with  a  character- 
istic change  of  mood,  and  not  only  allowing  his  arm  to  do 
as  it  pleased,  but  also  sinking  languidly  against  her, — 
"Lucy,  how  can  you  prefer  such  insects  as  Gayle  and 
Pamunkey  to  me?" 

"  I  don't  prefer  anybody. —  Won't  you  move  ?" 

"  Pamunkey,"  said  Mr.  Aster,  evidently  unconscious 
that  she  had  spoken,  "  is  a  rebel ;  while  I'm  a  loyal  man. 
I  have  fought  for  the  flag  which  he  tried  his  best  to  dis- 
solve ;  and  he  talks  like  a  colored  man." 

"  Does  the  fact  of  your  having  been  a  loyal  sailor — " 

"Hay?" 

The  jump  she  gave,  and  the  jar  communicated  to  the 
settee,  and  to  the  leaves  around  them,  must  have  startled 
Aster  also  ;  for  he  withdrew  his  right  hand  from  behind 
her,  and  with  it  pulled  vaguely  at  his  moustache. 

Then  Lucy  remembered  suddenly  that,  although  en- 
gaged in  the  war  for  the  Union,  he  had  not  been  an 
Officer,  and,  with  woman's  wit,  recognized  the  shock  she 
had  thoughtlessly  given  his  morbidly  sensitive  pride. 


230  A   MAN   AND   MEN. 

"  I  didn't  mean  it,  dear  Jack,"  she  whispered,  tenderly. 
"  I  know  you  have  never  been  appreciated.  But  now  let 
me  tell  you  the  good  news. — Are  you  listening? — I've 
been  to  see  your  Father  lately,  and  I've  been  to  see — 
Dollie." 

"I'm  a  Man,"  communed  Aster  with  himself,  still 
pulling. 

"  And  she  is  true  as  steel  to  you  !  But  that's  not  news. 
Do  you  know  that  Pa  is  coming  in  here  to  tell  you  some- 
thing the  moment  I  go  back  to  the  parlor?" 

No  answer  : — only  a  flitting  expression  around  the  eye- 
glasses as  of  marked  personal  dislike. 

"  Well,  you  scandalous  flirt !"  pursued  Lucy,  delighted 
with  what  she  had  to  reveal,  and  enthusiastically  antici- 
pating his  coming  electrification,  "  this  is  what  Tve  got 
to  tell  you  first :  In — your — Father's — house — at — this 
— present — moment — is —  the — real  —  owner — of — that — 
watch  you  stole !" 

"Hay?" 

The  very  recoil  of  the  tremendous  exclamation  seemed 
to  jerk  him  back  in  rigid  paralysis  against  the  branch- 
work  of  the  settee,  and  the  laugh  with  which  his  cousin 
had  been  springing  away  from  him  was  shocked  into  a 
hysterical  catching  of  her  breath. 

"I  mean  the  one  they  thought  you  stole,"  she  hurriedly 
added,  hastening  to  the  door  and  nervously  unlocking  it. 
"Now  Pa'li  tell  you  the  rest."     And  she  was  gone. 

When  Mr.  Lardner  came  in  he  found  the  young  man 
sitting  bolt-upright,  exactly  as  Lucy  had  left  him,  staring 
straight  into  horizontal  space. 

"  Good  evening,  John,"  he  said,  speaking  low  but 
quickly.  "  I  see  you  are  astonished  by  the  news.  Others 
will  be  in  here  in  a  moment,  and  I  must  use  as  few  words 


A   MAN    AND   MEN.  231 

as  possible.  Mrs.  Dedley,  a  new  nurse  at  your  Father's, 
owned  the  watch,  and  can  describe  the  real  pickpocket. 
I'd  advise  you  to  call  there  at  once  and  insist  upon  seeing 
her. — Here  they  come."  And,  as  a  number  of  flushed 
dancing  couples,  emerged  into  the  Conservatory  from  the 
bower,  Mr.  Lardner  gave  a  significant  nod,  and  hurried 
away. 

To  the  music  of  a  grand  promenade  march,  numerous 
richly  dressed  revelers  filed  into  the  glassy  temple  of 
flowers,  where  murmuring  fountains  and  dainty  perfumes 
made  a  purer  air  than  that  of  the  glaring  parlor ;  and 
much  moved  were  many  of  them  to  find  the  stony  dray- 
man amongst  the  statuary  of  the  place.  Those  who  had 
heard  a  part  of  his  earlier  Essay  on  Man,  inferred  that  he 
was  in  a  kind  of  magnetic  trance,  preparatory  to  farther 
philosophical  revelations,  and  made  haste  to  get  away 
before  he  should  resume  his  teachings.  Others  took  him 
for  some  author-friend  of  the  family,  in  misanthropical 
retirement ;  and  an  occasional  muttering  sound,  which 
some  interpreted  into  "Jemima  Ann,"  and  some  into 
"  I'm  a  Man,"  made  his  general  effect  somewhat  depress- 
ing to  the  senses,  if  not  distracting  to  the  intellect. 

While  passing  speculation  as  to  his  identity  and  disease 
was  yet  rife,  the  eccentric  gentleman  suddenly  sprung 
himself  erect,  with  a  movement  like  a  very  stiff  knife 
opening,  and  passed  to  the  door  and  through  the  bower 
in  such  a  ghostly  manner,  that  the  terrified  weak-faced 
young  man  tumbled  half-way  into  a  fountain  in  his  nerv- 
ous haste  to  get  out  of  the  way. 

Five  minutes  thereafter,  a  muffled  crash  and  prolonged 
bumping  noises  in  the  street-hall  called  a  swarm  of  startled 
hearers  thither  ;  when  it  was  discovered  that  a  figure  in  a 
Spanish  cloak  and  sombrero  had  pitched  headlong  down 


232  ANOTHER   OF   THE   THREE   COMES   TN. 

the  grand  stairway,  and  was  irascibly  picking  himself  np 
at  the  foot  thereof. 

"  Are  you  hurt,  sir  ?"  inquired  a  score  of  voices. 

Mr.  Aster,  writh  his  vast  hat  driven  down  almost  to  his 
neck,  solemnly  drew  a  tremendous  silver  watch  from  his 
vest  pocket  and  shook  the  broken  glass  out  of  it. 

"  A  shovelfull  of  ashes  would  have  saved  this,"  ex- 
claimed he,  bitterly.  "  If  Lardner  is  present,  let  him 
learn  to  sprinkle  those  stairs  with  ashes  in  the  Winter- 
time."— And  passed  severely  into  the  street  before  answer 
could  be  given.- 


XXVII. 

ANOTHER  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IN". 

OHEISTMAS  being  distant  but  a  week,  the  toy- 
store  was  as  suggestively  fanciful  with  evergreens 
as  Doctor  Canary's  taste  could  make  it,  and  looked  like 
some  fairy  wood  full  of  all  the  dissipations  of  a  city. 
Ladies  in  full  dress  and  of  intolerably  wrakeful  counten- 
ances seemed  to  find  no  discomfort  in  holding  to  lofty 
branches  by  their  spines ;  young  gentlemen  with  pain- 
fully red  cheeks  and  chronically  incredulous  eyes,  pro- 
jected from  all  sorts  of  leafy  depths  in  utter  defiance  of 
the  laws  of  equilibrium ;  companies  of  strongly  idealized 
soldiers  hung  devotedly  under  their  commanders  upon 
perpendicular  pink  roads  from  the  slenderest  boughs ; 
flights  of  drums,  trumpets,  muskets,  and  swords,  were 
forever   taking  place   on   strings   from   spray  to  spray ; 


ANOTHER   OF    TJJE   THREE   COMES    IX.  233 

Noah's  arks  appeared  majestically  sailing  out  of  harbors 
without  A's;  and  no  end  of  jumping-jacks,  boxes  of 
blocks,  villages,  and  a  thousand  other  incredibilities, 
turned  up  glowingly  in  as  many  arbitrary  groves.  Cus- 
tom, too,  was  so  brisk  ;  and  so  many  who  looked  into  the 
magic  wood,  and  were  edified  by  the  varied  poetic  le- 
gends, sent  others  to  look  and  buy  also,  that  Dollie  and 
the  rhyming  clerk  were  almost  prostrated  with  pros- 
perity. 

— At  certain  hours,  that  is.  From  noon  until  about 
Two  o'clock  of  each  day  there  was  a  complete  cessation 
of  trade ;  and,  during  this  interval  of  rest,  dinner  was 
eaten  by  the  strange  little  family,  new  efforts  made  to 
arouse  the  old  Toyman  from  his  savage  gloom,  and  new 
poetical  devices  composed  for  the  instruction  of  the 
public. 

On  the  afternoon  succeeding  the  last  return  from 
church,  a  heap  of  "  false-faces  "  in  the  show-window  bore 
this  new  moral : — 

For  pleasant  mumni'ry  of  the  Christmas  tide, 

A  quaint  False-Face  shall  rival  all  beside, 

And,  being  banded  to  the  smoothest  brow, 

Make  strangely  Monstrous  what  was  fair  but  now. 

Ah,  happy  Children !  that,  in  careless  glee, 

Can  Demons  seem,  and  yet  so  trusted  be; 

Ye  little  think,  in  all  your  mimic  play, 

Of  falser  faces,  taken  for  a  day; 

Which,  when  the  wearers  fain  would  throw  them  by, 

Still  leave  behind  some  trace  to  catch  the  eye — 

To  mock  the  trust  that  penitence  would  ask, 

And  hold  poor  nature  yet  behind  the  mask ! 

Jf  this  rather  dismal  morsel,  for  the  anguishment  of  the 
younger  circles,  indicated  that  the  Canary  muse  was  be- 


234  ANOTHER   OF   THE   THREE   COMES    IN. 

coming  yet  more  cynical,  it  certainly  did  injustice  to  the 
domestic  manners  of  the  poet;  for  the  latter,  apparently 
softened  still  more  than  before,  by  his  church-going,  now 
treated  both  father  and  daughter  with  a  patient  gentle- 
ness almost  womanly.  In  vain,  however,  were  all  his 
efforts  to  arouse,  or  conciliate  Geoffrey  Dapple.  At 
breakfast,  on  the  morning  after  the  last  conference  be- 
tween clerk  and  daughter,  the  Toyman's  manner  to  both 
was  sufficiently  repellant ;  but  at  the  former  he  cast  such 
frequent  covert  glances  of  malevolence,  and  returned  to 
him  such  snarling  monosyllables  for  the  most  friendly 
forms  of  address,  that  even  Dollie  eyed  him  with  pained 
surprise.  When,  after  working  as  usual  at  the  Walking 
Doll  (which  seemed  no  nearer  life  than  ever)  all  the  morn- 
ing, and  dining,  in  his  usual  sullen  moodiness,  with  them 
at  noon,  he  donned  shabby  hat  and  overcoat,  and  left  the 
house  without  a  word,  both  Canary  and  Miss  Dapple 
stared  after  him  in  uneasy  bewilderment,  and  wondered 
what  could  have  wrought  such  fresh  injury  to  their  cause. 

"  He  has  left  us  all  alone !"  said  Dollie,  from  her  sew- 
ing-chair behind  the  counter. 

"  He  trusts  me  less  than  ever,  for  some  cause,"  answer- 
ed the  clerk,  at  his  desk  :  and  at  once  composed  the  legend 
of  the  False-Faces. 

While  thus  the  deserted  twain  held  possession  of  the 
fairy  wood ;  the  one  sewing  cheerlessly  upon  a  doll's  bon- 
net, the  other  giving  the  last  touch  to  his  forlorn  lines, 
there  entered  unto  them  a  brisk,  sharp-eyed  man,  who, 
after  a  keen  glance  at  every  visible  object,  bowed  to 
Dollie,  and  went  confidently  to  the  desk. 

"  How  are  you,  Doctor  T  he  cried,  with  the  cordiality 
of  an  old  friend,  extending  his  hand. 

"  Quite     well,    thank    you,    Mr.    Stalker,"    returned^" 


ANOTHER   OF   THE   THREE    COMES    IX.  235 

Canary,  "with  equal  familiarity,  shaking  hands.     "  You're 
a  stranger." 

u  Well,  yes,"  said  the  detective,  staring  about  him 
again.  u  I  haven't  had  time  to  be  as  friendly  as  I  could 
have  wished." 

"  Miss  Dapple. — Daughter  of  my  employer,"  observed 
the  clerk  with  a  slight  wave  and  bow. 

"  Your  servant,  Miss.  Happy  to  have  the  honor." 
And  Mr.  Stalker  scraped,  lifted  his  hat,  and  coughed. 

"  I've   seen   you   outside  the   window   several  times, 

Stalker,"    continued    Doctor   Canary,    "  and  wondered 

/  what  kind  of  toy  you  were  making  up  your  mind  to 

buy.     Some  of  the  poetry  seemed  to  hit  you  hard,  I 

thought." 

li  There  you're  right,  Sir,"  said  Stalker,  smiling  agreea- 
bly from  the  lady  to  the  gentleman.  "  I've  read  some  of 
the  poems  of  this  establishment  with  a  relish  that  I  never 
expected  to  derive  again  from  toys ;  and  now,  that  I'm 
inside  at  last,  I  can  appreciate  the  subject — and  the  in- 
spiration."— With  a  bow  to  Dollie. 

"  Neatly  said  ;  very  neat  —  for  you,"  answered  the 
poet,  complacently  ;  "  but  you  should  not  have  been  too 
shy  to  drop  in  before.  I  daresay  that  Mr.  Dapple,  him- 
self, who  is  now  out,  would  have  found  something  to  say 
to  you  about  that  watch." 

Dollie  started,  colored,  and  stared  from  her  chair  at 
the  detective,  and  that  gentleman  looked  rather  startled 
himself. 

"  Oh, — ah — yes,"  said  Mr.  Stalker,  in  some  confusion. 
"  Mr.  Dapple  was  the  gentleman.  To  be  sure."  Then 
he  grew  instantly  cool  again  with  some  new  conception 
of  how  to  act,  and  added  :  "  As  Mr.  Dapple's  out,  Doc- 
tor, and  you're  his  clerk,  I  may  as  well  have  a  little  pri- 


236  ANOTHER    OF   TIIE   THREE   COMES    IN. 

vate  talk  with  you,  about  that  matter,  if  the  young  lady 
will » 

"  Miss  Dapple  has  more  right  than  I  to  hear  whatever 
}Tou  can  say  about  that,"  interrupted  Canary,  in  his 
blandest  style. 

"  That  may  be,  that  may  be,"  returned  the  detective,  a 
little  testily ;  "  but  the  lady  will  excuse  me  if  I  say  that 
it's  a  professional  rule  with  me  to  deal  always  writh  the 
gentlemen  first.  It  sounds  ungallant,  I'm  aware ;  but 
the  bright  eyes  of  the  fair  sex  put  a  man  out  so  !" 

"  I'll  go  up-stairs,  Doctor  Canary,"  said  Dollie,  begin- 
ning to  put  aside  her  work. 

"  No  earthly  necessity  for  that,  Miss  Dapple,"  inter- 
posed the  clerk,  with  a  reassuring  laugh.  "  If  my  old 
acquaintance  here  is  so  very  susceptible,  I'll  take  him  off 
to  my  own  room  above — if  you'll  excuse  me.  Step  this 
way,  Mr.  Stalker."  And,  followed  by  the  detective,  he 
passed  back  to  the  door  leading  into  the  hall,  and  through 
that  disappeared  from  the  maiden's  view. 

The  room  to  which  the  pair  now  ascended  \^as  upon 
the  second  floor,  with  two  windows  looking  out  upon  the 
rear  of  a  building  on  the  next  street.  Sunlight,  or  moon- 
light, could  get  into  it  as  either  planet  was  near  the 
zenith,  consequently  it  was  sufficiently  illuminated,  when 
the  two  men  entered,  to  reveal  how  scant  and  poor  was 
the  furniture. 

"  Ugh  !"  exclaimed  Stalker,  shivering  as  he  took  the 
chair  offered  him,  "  how  cold  you  are  up  here,  Doctor.  I 
don't  wonder  you  proposed  staying  down  below." 

"  I'm  poor,  yet,"  said  Canary,  shrugging  his  shoul- 
ders. 

"  Why,,  this  institution  certainly  hasn't  got  what  you 
might  call  a  rich  look,  Doctor,"  assented  the  other ;  and 


ANOTHER  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IN.        237 

peered  curiously  about  him.  "  I  don't  see  so  much  as  a 
trunk  to  cany  your  name." 

"  My  wardrobe  is  too  small  yet  to  have  a  house  of  its 
own,"  returned  Doctor  Canary.  But  here  his  jocularity 
ended,  and  after  a  gravely  questioning  glance  at  his  com- 
panion, he  adopted  a  different  tone.  "  Stalker,"  said  he, 
what  is  this  you've  got  to  say  about  this  affair  of  the 
watch  ?" 

"Nothing.  I  didn't  come  to  talk  about  any  watch. 
You  introduced  that  subject  yourself.  I'm  here  on  dif- 
ferent business  altogether." 

"  Be  that  as  it  may,"  rejoined  Canary,  sternly,  "  I  must 
still  know  something  from  you  as  to  the  watch.  Stalker, 
I  saw  that  whole  trick  from  my  wagon,  and  I  know  that 
you  had  a  hand  in  it.  I've  heard  more  since,  and  under- 
stand the  whole  game,  except  one  point." 

"  The  deuce  you  do  !"  exclaimed  the  detective,  staring. 

"  I  do.  But  this  is  the  point  I'm  curious  about,  and 
you  must  enlighten  me.  How  the  mischief  could  you 
tell  that  Dapple  would  miss  his  watch,  and  take  the  one 
found  for  his  ?" 

"  If  you  see  through  the  thing  so  far,"  answered  Stalk- 
er, doggedly,  " — and  I  don't  see  how  you've  got  hold  of 
the  points — I  may  as  well  own  that  I  couldnH  tell  it.  I 
raised  the  cry  of  '  Look  out  for  your  pockets,'  thinking 
like  as  not  that  some  one  in  that  crowd  had  been  gone 
through  by  my  '  pigeon,'  after  he'd  done  my  trick  for 
me ;  and  was  ready  to  turn  suspicion  on  the  young  sailor 
the  moment  any  one  sung  out." 

"  Yes  ;  I  could  make  out  that  much  myself." 

"  The  deuce  you  could  !  Well,  when  the  old  gent 
made  a  racket,  and  I  crowded  him  onto  the  sailor,  I'd  no 
more  idea  of  his  taking  to  the  watch  as  he  did,  than  I 


238        ANOTHER  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IN. 

had  of  your  doing  it !  Not  a  bit !  I  expected  the  young 
fellow  would  be  found  in  possession  of  the  watch,  and 
was  going  to  suddenly  discover  that  it  was  mine  !  Yes, 
sir  !  And  when  things  turned  out  all  the  better  for  my 
game  by  the  old  gent's  freezing  to  that  ticker,  as  he  did, 
(Is  he  crazy  ?)  I  was  about  ready  to  think  that  Providence 
was  in  it." 

"  You  model  Christian  !  And  what  purpose  had  you 
in  plotting  so  for  the  ruin  of  an  innocent  young  man  ?" 

"  It  was  business.  I  was  being  paid  by  his  Stepmother 
to  get  him  into  some  scrape  that  would  dish  him  with 
his  Governor." 

"  And  you  really  have  the  rascally  impudence,"  said 
Doctor  Canary,  raising  his  eyebrows,  "  to  admit  the 
whole  thing  to  me  in  this  cool  manner  !" 

"  That  game  is  up  ;  and  why  shouldn't  I  ?"  asked  the 
man,  with  perfect  composure. 

"  Suppose  I  happen  to  take  a  present  interest  in  this 
wronged  young  man ;  and  suppose  I  make  oath  in  Court 
to  what  I  saw,  and  what  you  have  confessed  ?" 

"  I  don't  think  you'll  do  it,"  said  Stalker. 

"  What  is  to  prevent  ?" 

"  I'll  tell  you.  Do  you  think  I'm  such  a  fool,  Doctor, 
as  to  drop  on  myself  in  that  way,  if  I  didn't  have  some- 
thing in  hand  to  make  myself  safe  with  you  ?" 

"  Now  you're  arriving  at  your  real  purpose  in  coming 
here,  I  see,"  said  Canary,  regarding  him  with  anything 
but  favor.  "  The  sooner  you  tell  it  and  are  gone,  the 
less  inclined  I  shall  feel  to  pitch  you  out  of  the  window." 

"  Just  wait  till  you  hear,"  rejoined  the  other,  coolly. 

"  When  did  you  recognize  me  ?"  asked  Doctor  Canary. 

"  Just  after  you'd  got  in  here,"  was  the  answer.  "  I 
didn't  know  you  in  your  tooth-powder  uniform ;  but  I 


ANOTHER  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IN.        239 

happened  to  see  you  down-stairs  in  the  store  doorway  one 
morning,  and  knew  you  in  a  minute.  Now,  then,  here's 
my  '  real  purpose,'  as  you  call  it : ." 

— But,  as  conversations  between  middle-aged  men 
alone  are  always  uninteresting,  while  even  the  silence  of 
a  pretty  girl — if  only  on  account  of  its  extreme  novelty — 
is  just  the  contrary,  we  may  revert  again  to  Dollie,  as  she 
alternately  waited  upon  customers  and  took  turns  at  her 
sewing.  Eeadily  deciding  that  Mr.  Stalker  could  be  no 
other  than  the  officio  us  personage  to  whom  both  Geoffrey 
and  Canary  had  ascribed  a  mysterious  leading  agency  in 
the  crimination  of  her  lover,  she  distracted  her  pretty 
head  and  moistened  her  pretty  eyes  with  painful  conjec- 
tures as  to  his  object  in  coming  there.  Was  her  hapless 
Father  about  falling  into  fresh  trouble  because  he  had  so 
obstinately  retained  that  miserable  watch?  Had  the 
detective  seen  her  lover  on  the  occasion  of  his  unfortu- 
nate visit  to  her,  and  come  to  gain  information  for  a 
second  arrest?  What  other  object  than  one  of  these 
could  such  a  caller  possibly  have  %  Working  herself  up 
to  a  high  pitch  of  anxious  excitement  by  reasoning  of 
this  kind,  the  girl  finally  resolved  to  question  the  detec- 
tive peremptorily  herself,  when  he  should  reappear  with 
Canary ,  and  learn  the  worst. 

While  she  listened,  however,  for  the  returning  foot- 
steps, even  though  heeding  the  duties  of  trade,  Mr. 
Stalker  reached  the  Street  by  passing  out  through  the 
hall,  and  Doctor  Canary  came  back  into  the  store  alone. 
A  momentary  cessation  of  custom  allowing  Dollie  to  give 
all  her  eyes  to  the  clerk,  she  at  once  saw  that  some  strong 
emotion  had  been  working  upon  his  face,  and,  in  her 
frenzy  of  apprehension,  hurried  to  meet  him  and  involun- 
tarily caught  one  of  his  hands. 


210  THE   STEPMOTHER-TONGUE. 

"  Oh,  Doctor  Canary !     "What  is  the  matter  ?" 

"  Nothing  to  worry  you,  my  poor  child,"  he  said, 
gently,  holding  her  fingers  in  a  re-assuring  clasp. 

"  No  fresh  trouble  for  Pa,  or-or-Mr.  Aster  ?" 

"  Not  the  least.  The  owner  of  the  watch  will  never 
reclaim  it,  and  the  true  thief  may  soon  be  known." 

"  Oh  thank  you !  thank  you !"  cried  Dollie,  forgetful 
of  his  still  despondent  aspect  in  her  own  recovery  from 
a  great  fright.  "  You  never  speak  but  to  comfort  me, 
Dr.  Canary ;"  and  she  heartily  grasped  his  hand  again 
for  a  shake  of  sheer  gratitude. 

To  her  surprise,  he  ended  this  ceremony  very  abruptly ; 
nor  could  she  comprehend  what  he  meant,  until,  follow- 
ing his  suddenly  amazed  look  over  her  shoulder,  she  be- 
held her  Father's  haggard  face  staring  in  at  them  through 
the  window ! 

Before  either  could  change  attitude,  the  Toyman  was 
in  the  store,  his  whole  demeanor  wild  with  inexplicable 
fury  and  his  pace  almost  a  stagger. 

Looking  at  neither  of  them,  apparently,  he  seemed 
bent  only  on  reaching  the  back-room ;  and,  before  the 
wondering  Canary  could  get  out  of  his  path,  had  dashed 
him  furiously  aside  with  the  strength  and  passion  of  a 
madman. 


XXVIII. 

THE   STEPMOTHER-TONGUE. 

DEATH  had  made  a  hasty  call  in  Jenkins  Place  and 
left  his  blank  white  card  upon  the  face  of  the  poor 
little  baby-boy.     An  old  man  in  that  house  had  been  ex- 


THE   STEPMOTHER-TONGUE.  241 

pecting  him.  for  more  than  a  year ;  yet  he  passed  the  hos- 
pitable door  of  age  as  though  it  had  not  been,  and  broke 
into  the  playhouse  of  infancy  like  a  thief  in  the  night. 

And  the  old  man  who  had  been  slighted,  and  the  moth- 
er who  had  been  robbed,  talked  together  in  a  common 
sorrow  ;  he,  with  the  regret  of  one  whose  recreant  guest 
instead  of  acting  the  noble  enemy  had  proved  a  dastardly 
trickster ;  and  she,  with  the  repressed  despair  of  an  in- 
domitable queen,  who,  in  fighting  to  retain  her  crown,  had 
lost  its  heir. 

"  Adelaide,"  said  the  old  man,  holding  her  hands,  as 
she  sat,  tearless  and  in  black,  beside  his  pillowed  chair — 
"  Adelaide,  you  have  still  a  son,  but  I  am  left  childless  at 
last — yes,  worse  than  childless  !  I  could  have  prayed  to  be 
taken  while  something  yet  lived  to  call  me  Father." 

"He  is  better  off,"  was  the  unmeaning  answer,  more 
eloquent  of  something  broken  than  of  aught  hardened. 

"We  can't  doubt  that,  my  dear. — Alas !" 

"  I  have  you,  only,  now,  my  Husband." 

"  And  Theodore." 

"  Yes,— and  Theodore." 

The  sick  man  turned  his  heavy  eyes  upon  her  as  she 
sat  there  so  calm  and  pale  in  her  old  place,  and  his  drawn 
features  softened  with  that  touching,  pitying  tenderness 
which,  like  ivy  on  a  ruin,  covers  all  that  is  not  beautiful 
in  the  countenance  of  age. 

u  I  spoke  of  myself  as  the  greater  sufferer,"  he  said, 
very  slowly,  "  because  I  would  see  you  roused,  my  dear, 
to  some  natural  self-assertion  of  your  mother-feeling.  If  I 
could  see  you  cry,  heartily,  as  I  myself  have  cried,  I  could 
forgive  my  own  worst  selfishness  that  had  made  you  ac- 
cept the  one  relief  nature  gives.  You  will  break-down  if 
you  go  on  in  this  way." 
1 1 


242  THE  STEPMOTHER- TONGUE. 

"  Dear  Husband,"  she  said,  kissing  his  thin  hand,  and 
looking  piteously  into  his  face,  "  I  can  bear  what  Provi- 
dence has  sent  upon  me,  without  weakening  in  the  face 
of  the  duty  I  owe  to  you.  I  am  thankful  that  we  are 
still  spared  to  each  other.  "When  I  think  of  that — 
and  when  do  I  not  ? — I  am  strong  for  every  trial. 
Only—" 

She  paused  and  dropped  her  head  upon  the  arm  of  his 
chair. 

"  Only  what,  my  child  f" 

"  There  are  persons  who  will  be  glad  that  poor  baby  is 
dead !" 

"As they  will  when  I,  too,  am  in  my  grave  !J'  exclaim- 
ed Mr.  Aster,  with  quick  emotion.  "  Look  up,  Adelaide. 
Never  droop  your  head  to  them  /  They  are  as  much  my 
enemies  as  yours ;  and  in  hating  their  poor  little  brother 
they  have  only  carried  out  their  ungrateful,  unnatural  ha- 
tred of  their  Father." 

"No!"  cried  the  wife,  raising  her  head  as  she  spoke. 
"  They  bear  no  hatred  to  You." 

"  I  spurn  the  distinction,"  ejaculated  the  sick  man,  im- 
patiently. "  By  loving  me,  their  Father  ;  by  being  true 
to  me ;  you  have  gained  their  cowardly,  unnatural  ha- 
tred. Does  that  mean  love  for  me  ?  Adelaide,  I'll  nev- 
er forgive  them !  They  shall  not  profit  by  my  death. 
Let  them  herd  with  outcasts — criminals — like  themselves, 
and  reap  what  they  have  sown." 

"Perhaps  /have  wronged  them,"  answered  she,  speak- 
ing low,  and  looking  down.  "  Perhaps  this  grief  has  been 
sent  upon  me  because,  in  my  jealousy  of  your  love,  I  have 
wronged  those  who  envied  me  what  I  sought  too  large  a 
share  of.  I  am  not  guiltless  of  having  spoken  evil  of 
them  to  you,  when  I  feared  they  were  seeking  your  ear 


THE    STEPMOTHER-TONGUE.  243 

to  speak  evil  of  me.     It  may  be  that  Philip  is  dead.     If 
lie  is,  may  he  forgive  me  in  his  grave  I" 

"Adelaide!" 

"  Let  me  finish. — I  believe — yes,  I  am  sure — that  John 
is  innocent  of  the  criminal  charge  against  him.  Believe 
your  Brother  and  his  daughter  in  that.  Strange  stories 
may  be  told  when  love  fights  to  supplant  love.  And, 
Philip," — here  she  turned  deadly  white  under  his  aston- 
ished gaze — "  strange  stories  may  be  told  when  revenge 
seeks  to  alienate  the  loving.  What  if  some  tale-bearer 
should  tell  you,  that  I — whom  you  raised  from  a 
widow-hood  of  hard  and  thankless  toil,  to  become  the 
highest  object  of  your  love  and  honor — was  once  a 
fugitive  from  a  husband  whom  the  law  recognized 
as  sinless  against  me — whom  the  law  championed  as 
rolled?" 

"  Sick  and  weak  as  I  am,"  cried  Mr.  Aster,  his  voice 
shrill  as  a  child's,  and  his  face  purple  with  the  blood  rush- 
ing violently  to  it,  "  I'd  strike  down  the  liar  to  the  earth, 
and  trample  on  his  slanderous  mouth! — Yes,  though  he 
had  once  been  my  son  !" 

u  A  gentleman  to  see  you,  sir  : — your  son,"  said  Mrs. 
Dedley,  gliding  in  like  a  sinister  echo. 
-    Lying  back  in  his  pillows,  too  exhausted  to  utter  an- 
other word,  the  sick  man  stared  at  the  intruder  with  a 
look  almost  of  fright. 

"  Let  Mr.  Aster  come  in,"  said  the  Stepmother,  with  a 
quietness  of  manner  contrasting  curiously  with  her 
wrought-up  condition  of  a  moment  before. 

Not  a  syllable  disturbed  the  sudden  silence  of  the  room, 
until  the  door  reopened,  and  a  young  man  in  cloak  and 
eyeglasses  entered  with  such  long-reaching  strides  as  one 
might  take  who,  at  a  certain  fixed  distance  from  his  start- 


244  THE   STEPMOTHER-TONGUE. 

ing  point,  expected  to  either  leap  over  or  kneel  before 
some  object. 

Instantly  then  Mrs.  Aster  arose,  and,  with  finger  against 
her  lip,  stopped  the  new-comer  at  the  very  edge  of  either 
his  contemplated  leap,  or  posture  of  homage. 

"Your  father,"  she  said,  under  her  breath,  " is  too 
weak  at  this  moment  to  bear  the  least  excitement.  You 
must  be  as  quiet  in  your  greeting  as  possible." 

Paralyzed  as  he  had  been  in  mid-career  by  her  gesture 
of  warning,  and  rendered  motionless,  just  as  he  had 
stopped,  by  her  disconcerting  words,  the  cloaked  son  re- 
mained for  a  moment  some  paces  from  his  father's  chair 
in  the  amazing  straddling  attitude  of  one  in  the  act  of 
stepping  across  a  very  wide  creek.  In  another  moment, 
however,  he  drew  his  last  limb  over  the  stream,  walked 
up  the  bank  to  the  chair,  and  took  his  sire's  listless  hand. 

"  Father,"  he  said,  in  some  agitation,  "  I  have  returned. 
You're  not  looking  so  well,  sir.     I  have  returned." 

As  the  invalid,  wTith  his  eyes  closed,  paid  no  attention 
•to  this  friendly  and  gratifying  announcement,  Mr.  Aster 
moved  on  tiptoe  to  a  chair  facing  his  father's  and  the  one 
which  Mrs.  Aster  had  quietly  resumed,  and  seated  him- 
self upon  it  as  though  he  were  being  gradually  lowered 
thereto  by  some  cog-wheel  graduator  of  descent. 

"  Asleep  ?"  he  said,  in  a  whisper  to  make  the  strongest 
person's  flesh  creep. 

"  No,"  returned  the  wife,  softly ;  "  only  very  weak  at 
this  moment.     He  can  hear  what  you  may  say." 

"  He  always  was  very  able — he  always  wras  a  very  able 
man,"  rejoined  the  young  man,  evidently  with  a  view  to 
charm  the  paternal  ear,  and,  at  the  same  time  to  not 
.commit  himself.     "As  I  said  before,  I've  returned." 

Mrs.  Aster  bowed,  and  placed  a  hand  soothingly  on  her 


THE    STEPMOTIIER-TONGUE.  245 

husband's  arm.  Thereupon  the  son  coughed  thoughtfully, 
glanced  at  her  black  dress,  and,  reaching  to  the  poker, 
poked  the  adjacent  grate-fire  with  great  agility  for  several 
moments. 

"I  saw  the  little  death  in  the  papers,"  he  finally  ex- 
plained, "  and  that  is  what  has  brought  me.  I  am  sorry ; 
but  I  have  noticed  that  when  infants  do  die  they  general- 
ly die  young.  If  an  infant  has  got  to  die  in  infancy,  it 
would  seem  advisable  for  it  to  die  young ;  because  then  it 
is  more  innocent  than  if  it  was  older." 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  touching  and  comforting  re- 
mark,— which  had  been  delivered  with  a  decent  mixture  of 
lowness  of  spirits  and  natural  sagacity — he  thoughtfully 
extended  the  hot  end  of  the  poker  toward  one  of  the  in- 
valid's hands,  to  ascertain,  apparently,  whether  his  father 
was  really  awake,  or  asleep. 

As  the  elder  Aster,  still  keeping  his  eyes  closed,  drew 
back  the  hand  and  murmured  an  indignant  exclamation, 
Mrs.  Aster  hastily  arose,  took  the  poker  away  from  the 
young  man,  and  then  returned  to  the  chair. 

"You  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  yourself!"  she  said, 
sternly. 

"Did  anybody  speak?"  queried  the  discarded  son,  with 
sudden  superciliousness  of  aspect.  "  Did  a  voice  in  the 
air  remark,  with  Stepmotherly  affection,  that  one  of  her 
victims  ought  to  be  ashamed  of  himself?  I  thought  I 
heard  a  disagreeable  sound  of  some  kind."  And,  after 
gazing  a  moment  around  the  atmosphere  with  his  bone 
eyeglasses,  he  began  shoveling  coal  from  the  skuttle  into 
the  grate  with  a  racket  to  wake  the  dead. 

"  Tell  him  to  go  !  tell  him  to  go  !"  moaned  the  invalid, 
irascibly. 

"  Ah !  you  are  awake,  my  Father,"  exclaimed  the  young 


246  THE   STEPMOTHEE-TONGUE. 

man,  playfully  reaching  over  and  tapping  him  on  the 
knuckles  with  the  shovel. — "  O,  I  beg  your  pardon  !  I 
didn't  think  about  it's  being  hot." 

"He's  burnt  me  again.  Tell  him  to  go !"  whispered 
the  elder  Aster,  who  would  not  look  at  his  degenerate 
offspring. 

With  a  frown  of  profound  concern  upon  such  portions 
of  his  remarkable  countenance  as  the  eyeglasses  permitted 
to  have  any  expression  of  their  own,  the  younger  Aster 
now  took  cognizance  of  the  paternal  order  for  his  depar- 
ture, and  regarded  the  figure  in  the  chair  with  evident 
commiseration. 

"  Does  my  Father's  mind  wander  in  this  way  frequent- 
ly ?"  he  inquired,  with  great  anxiety.  "  I  think,  from  his 
last  remark,  that  he  must  take  me  for  his  medicated  step- 
son.'' 

"  He  knows  you  but  too  well,"  said  Mrs.  Aster. 

"Ah;  you  think  so,  do  you,  Madam?"  returned  the 
son,  with  a  haughty  stare.  "How  do  you  reconcile  that 
fact  with  a  certain  expression  of  dislike  visible  about  his 
countenance  at  this  moment  ? — ]STo,  Father !"  he  added, 
earnestly  appealing  to  the  invalid,  "  I  am  not  Theodore ; 
but  your  own  favorite  son." 

"  Go !  Never  let  me  see  you  again !"  exclaimed  the 
old  man,  raising  his  brows  for  a  moment,  and  motioning 
with  a  hand  toward  the  door. 

The  favorite  son  addressed  a  significant  glance  to  his 
self- con  trolling  Stepmother,  and  wagged  his  head  mourn- 
folly. 

"You  see,  now,  he  does  not  know  me.  Remember, 
Madam,  never  tell  him  of  this  in  his  lucid  moments. 
Suppose  I  had  taken  him  at  his  word !" 

Thus  far  the  lady  had  endeavored  to  play  a  thoroughly 


THE    STErMOTHER-TONGUE.  247 

neutral  part  between  the  two,  her  only  demonstration  of 
marked  feeling  having  been  that  which  related  to  the 
poker;  but  now  she  quietly  placed  her  lace  handker- 
chief over  her  husband's  face, — thereby  restoring  him, 
as  it  were,  to  privacy — and  fixed  a  look  of  unmistak- 
able reproof  upon  the  persistently  self-deluding  in- 
truder. 

"  As  forbearance  with  you,  Sir,  seems  only  to  encourage 
you  in  a  sad  mistake,"  she  said,  in  a  clear,  even  tone,  "  I 
must  tell  you  once  more,  on  behalf  of  a  long-enduring 
Father,  who  is  too  ill  to  bear  the  excitement  of  adminis- 
tering the  deserved  rebuke  himself,  that  you  are  known 
for  whom  you  are,  that  your  manner  of  introducing  your- 
self into  this  room  a  second  time  is  no  less  offensive  to  a 
parent's  lacerated  natural  feelings  than  was  the  manner 
of  your  first  ill-advised  intrusion " 

"  But,  woman,  I " 

— "  and  that,  by  audacity  and  a  disregard  of  all  filial 
respect,  you  can  never  succeed  in  removing  impressions 
made  long  ago  by  your  desertion  of  him  whose  only 
offense  against  you  was  his  marriage  with  one,  who,  if 
you  could  not  love  her  as  a  second  mother  for  his  sake, 
should,  at  least  have  commanded  your  respect  and  for- 
bearance as  his  wife  and  a  joint-sharer  of  your  family- 
name;  who,  not  fifteen  minutes  ago,  was  pleading  for 
you,  even  though  you  have  so  despised  and  reviled  her ; 
and  who,  if  you  would  but  come  here  in  a  proper  spirit, 
after  giving  up  your  dray, " 

"Hat?" 
— "  Don't  startle  your  Father  in  that  way — might  be 
more  ready  than  you  think  to  mediate,  between  reviving 
parental  affection  and  filial  penitence,  for  a  restoration 
of   that  early  love  and  confidence  which   are  now  but 


248  THE    STEPMOTHER-TONGUE. 

retarded,  if  not  placed  almost  beyond  earthly  recall 
by  two  unfeeling  invasions  of  the  sanctity  of  a  sick- 
room,  " 

"  But,  Stepmother  !— Adelaide !— I " 

— "  and  which,  so  far  from  being  helped,  or  hastened, 
by  the  coming  hither  of  Mr.  and  Miss  Lardner,  with 
covert  appeals  as  much  against  your  father's  wife  as  in 
favor  of  your  Father's  sons,  are  put  farther  and  farther 
off  by  such  alternate  confusion  and  husbandly  indigna- 
tion in  your  Father's  mind  as  prey  dangerously  upon  him 
in  his  present  debilitated  state  ;  nor  are  any  more  likely 
to  be  speedily  invited,  I  am  afraid,  by  the  strong  appear- 
ance of  some  preconcerted  arrangement  between  your- 
self and  Mr.  Lardner  under  which  you  are  to  wed  Miss 
Lardner " 

"  Hat  ?" 

" Don't  frighten  the  words  out  of  my  mouth,  sir, 

— in  case  her  father  shall  succeed  in  convincing  my  poor 
sick  husband  that  it  is  his  duty  to  discard  from  his  pro- 
tection and  support  those  whose  great  sin,  in  Mr.  Lard- 
ner's  and  his  friends'  opinion,  has  been  their  unswerving 
attachment  to  him,  and  yield  his  all  of  love  and  fortune 
to  sons — supposing  that  both  still  live — who,  until  the 
hour  of  sickness,  and,,  as  they  think,  of  peril  to  their 
mercenary  interests,  have  never  seen  fit  to  even  let  their 
only  remaining  earthly  parent  know  of  their  continued 
existence;  and,  even  when  there  is  mourning  in  his 
childless  house,  are  not  deterred  from  coming  hither  to 
practice  what  almost  sound  like  jests  upon  a  father  weep- 
ing for  his  poor  little  baby-boy,  and  a  mother,  who,  if 
she  does  not  weep,  only  restrains  herself  to  save  from 
excitement  an  invalid  now  suffering  under  a  physical 
weakness — " 


TOYMAN    AND   DRAYMAN.  240 

Here  young  Aster  flew,  with  starting  eyes,  from  the 
room. 

Turning  to  the  sick  man,  again,  patiently  as  before, 
the  unconquerable  woman  gently  withdrew  the  handker- 
chief from  his  face. 

"  Are  you  tired,  dear  husband  V 

"  Yery,"  replied  he,  in  a  voice  just  audible.  For  he 
was  weak. 


XXIX. 

TOYMAN   AND   DRAYMAN. 

AT  about  one  hour  past  noon,  on  the  last  Sunday 
before  Christmas,  Mrs.  Haggle's  parlor,  in  Dame 
Street,  presented  a  domestic  scene  which,  had  it  been 
pre-Raphaelited  upon  canvas  by  some  appreciative 
artist ;  duly  aggravated  with  impossible  light  and  shade ; 
and  hung-up  untitled  in  a  gilt  frame,  would  have  been 
variously  interpreted  as  a  modernized  sketch  from  Don 
Quixote,  a  view  of  an  Italian  Interior,  or  Lafayette  and 
his  Family  in  the  Prison  at  Ohnutz. 

Aside  from  the  general  tendency  of  the  astonishingly 
painted  window-shades  and  the  insoluble  pattern  of  the 
wall-paper  to  place  the  apartment  itself  in  any  century 
and  country  most  agreeable  to  the  imagination,  Mr. 
Aster's  solemnly  foreign  appearance,  as  he  sat  tilted  back 
with  feet  against  the  stove,  Mr.  Goggle's  undefined  stat- 
ure  and  nationality,  as  he  lay  sleeping  under  a  counter- 
pane upon  the  haircloth  sofa,  and  Mrs.  Haggle's  equivo- 
II* 


250  TOYMAN   AND   DKAYMAN. 

cation  of  sex,  as  she  sat  on  the  other  side  of  the  stove  in 
short  hair  and  strong-mindedness,  were  points  out  of 
which  your  artist  of  sentiment  could  have  made  a  picture 
meaning  any  possible  subject  that  a  collector  had  not  yet 
added  to  his  gallery. 

For  some  moments  Mr.  Aster's  moody  expression  of 
countenance  had  been  about  equally  appropriate  to  Don 
Quixote  resolving  to  try  the  penance  of  Beltenebros,  an 
Italian  husbandman  brooding  over  a  bad  grape  season, 
or  the  imprisoned  Lafayette  wishing  for  a  habeas  corpus, 
and  Mrs.  Hago-le  could  stand  his  silence  no  longer. 

C7c5  CD 

"  You've  got  the  blues  again,  Aster,"  she  said,  with 
manly  directness  of  address,  "  and  don't  seem  to  realize 
that  it's  my  own  parlor  you're  taking  no  notice  of  me 
in." 

"  I  am  trying,"  was  the  answer,  in  a  deep,  self-com- 
muning kind  of  voice,  u  to  explain  to  myself  the  mean- 
ing of  this  life  of  mine." 

"  Has  it  never  struck  you,  Aster,  that  it  means  dyspep- 
sia?" inquired  Mrs.  Haggle,  unfeelingly;  her  rights  as 
man's  equal  being  outraged  by  his  abstractions  in  her 
company. 

"Dyspepsia?"  he  repeated,  with  a  brief  and  bitter 
laugh.  "  !STo,  Madam  !  When  there  is  dyspepsia  in  this 
house,  there  will  be  rheumatism  in  the  infernal  regions." 

"I  understand  you  now,  usurping  tyrant  of  my  sex  !" 
exclaimed  the  woman,  hotly, — "  and  after  such  a  chicken 
for  dinner,  too  !" 

"Madam,"  said  Aster,  suddenly  rousing,  and  looking 
reproachfully  at  her  through  his  bone  eyeglasses,  "how 
many  times  has  that  one  superannuated  chicken  been  up- 
on the  table  %  Why  am  I  hungry  now  ?  Why  is  my 
adopted  son,  here,  sick  now  ?     Because,  in  order  to  make 


TOYMAN   AND   DRAYMAN.  251 

that  one  fowl  of  the  year  last  through  the  whole  Holiday 
month,  you  have  given  us  nothing  but  the  scramp  of  it 
for  three  days.  By  heavens,  Madam !  I  couldn't  have 
believed  that  one  chicken  could  be  carved  so  much  without 
reaching  the  eatable  part." 

"  I  should  like  to  know,  young  Man,"  retorted  Mrs.  Hag- 
gle, passionately,  "  if  I  didn't  give  that  sick  boy  of  yours 
a  piece  of  the  chest  this  very  day  ?" 

"  It  was  the  neck,  Madam." 

"  Don't  contradict  me,  Aster  !  It  might  have  been  cut 
off  high  up,  but  it  was  the  chest." 

"  It  might  have  been  some  part  of  the  chest,  as  distin- 
guished from  any  part  of  the  trunk,"  said  Aster,  grimly. 

"  Ah,  you  think  you  can  talk  sarkazzum  to  me  because 
I'm  only  a  woman,"  responded  the  landlady,  tauntingly  ; 
"but  I  can  tell  yon,  my  good  young  fellow,  that  your 
domineering  man's-airs  don't  frighten  me  at  all.  I've 
pampered  you  and  that  boy,  until  he's  sick  and  you're 
despotic." 

"I  am  maddened  by  hunger,"  said  the  drayman,  dog- 
gedly. 

"That's  because  your  appetite  is  morbid,  Aster." 

Something  in  this  very  reasonable  explanation  of  an 
unnatural  craving  for  food  seemed  to  touch  some  irritable 
chord  in  the  man's  diseased  nature ;  for  he  started  under 
it  and  contracted  his  brow  as  in  pain. 

"  I  am  told,"  he  said,  passing  a  hand  quickly  across  his 
forehead,  "that  my  pride  is  morbid,  my  sensibility  mor- 
bid, my  misapprehension  morbid,  and  my  appetite  morbid  ! 
Mrs.  Haggle  " — and  his  look  and  manner  became  wild — 
"if  this  sort  of  thing  goes  on,  I  shall  be  driven  to  drink, 
and  come  home  some  night  with  an  impediment  in  my 
speech.     I  am  hungry  half  the  time,  I  don't  understand  a 


252  TOYMAN   AND   DRAYMAN. 

quarter  of  what  is  said  to  me  in  fashionable  society,  and 
you  and  my  Stepmother  together  will  yet  talk  me  into 
my  grave."  He  paused,  slapped  his  forehead,  and  added  : 
"  My  woes  are  augmented  by  this  fancy  of  my  adopted 
son  that  he  is  about  to  die,  and  must  have  his  vagabond 
of  a  father  sent  for.  If  I  were  sick  could  I  send  for  my 
Father  ?  No  !  He  thinks  me  morbid  and  despises  me." 
And  the  agitated  speaker  attempted  to  clutch  his  bosom 
in  his  agony,  but  was  arrested  and  turned  exclamatory  in 
the  act  by  a  pin. 

"  Gen'ral,"  cried  a  sleepy  voice  from  the  sofa  at  that 
instant,  "  have  you  sent  for  my  daddy  V\ 

Diverted  from  his  own  thoughts  by  the  sound,  the  dray- 
man hurried  to  the  sofa  and  bent  over  the  boy. 

"  No,  Orlonzo  ;  not  yet." 

No  further  remark  coming  from  the  youth,  Mr.  Aster 
looked  anxiously  at  his  flushed  face  a  moment,  and  then 
turned  apprehensively  to  Mrs.  Haggle. 

"I  believe  he  spoke  in  his  sleep,"  said  he,  thoughtfully. 
"If  he  is  no  better  in  the  morning  I  must  have  a  doctor.'' 

As  has  been  intimated  before,  if  the  landlady  was  strong- 
minded  and  masculine  in  many  things,  she  could  also  be 
weak-hearted  and  womanly  in  a  few  ;  and  some  appeal, 
in  this  little  episode,  to  her  softer  nature,  drove  the  harder 
out  of  sight  in  a  twinkling.  Moving  her  chair  to  the 
sofa,  she  placed  her  hand  softly  on  the  boy's  hot  head, 
and  then  shook  her  own. 

"  He  has  more  fever,"  she  said,  u  and  ought,  as  you  say, 
to  have  a  doctor. — There's  the  door-bell,  Aster,  just  go 
and  see  who  is  there." 

"  I'll  watch  the  boy,  and  you  go,"  responded  the  dray- 
man, with  some  hauteur.  "  In  justice  to  my  family  I 
can't  'tend  door,  Madam." 


TOYMAN   AND  DRAYMAN.  253 

"  Then,  of  course,  I  must  go  myself,"  wa3  Mrs.  Hag- 
gle's answer,  as,  with  renewed  asperity  of  demeanor,  she 
turned  about  to  leave  the  room,  Scarcely  had  she  taken 
a  step,  however,  when  Aster  stepped  quickly  before  her 
with  hand  restrainingly  outstretched. 

"  Pardon  me  !"  he  said,  in  an  altered  tone.  "  When  you 
reprove  me,  Madam,  in  words  that  are  only  womanly,  I 
am  shamed  to  have  forgotten  the  gentleman's  privilege 
and  duty  of  being  ever  the  servant  to  her  who  is  servant- 
less."  And,  after  a  bow  in  which  his  eternal  eyeglasses 
slid  to  the  extreme  end  of  his  nose,  he  hurried  to  the 
street-door. 

Of  all  mankind,  Geoffrey  Dapple  was  the  very  last  to 
be  expected  in  Dame  Street  on  a  Sunday,  and  when  the 
drayman  beheld  his  shabby,  stooping  figure  in  the  door- 
way, he  momentarily  mistook  him  for  a  beggar,  and  be- 
gan feeling  in  his  nearest  pocket  for  a  certain  torn  frac- 
tional note,  which,  being  ineligible  for  other  use,  was  just 
the  thing  for  charity. 

"  Your  name  is  Aster,"  said  the  Toyman,  eying  him 
with  all  the  power  of  his  spectacles  and  shaggy  eye- 
brows. 

"  Mr.  Aster,"  was  the  rather  stern  correction. 

"  Can  I  speak  to  you  by  yourself  for  a  moment,  or 
two  ? — I  must  do  it !" 

Regarding  the  old  man  with  reproving  severity,  the 
dignified  drayman  motioned,  after  a  second's  hesitation, 
for  him  to  step  inside,  and  then  closed  the  door. 

"  Now,"  said  he,  "  what  do  you  want  ?  What  have 
you  been  drinking  ?" 

Not  noticing  the  last  question,  Mr.  Dapple  glanced 
suspiciously  down  the  dim  hall,  and  nervously  fingered 
his  unshaven  chin. 


254  TOYMAN   AND   DRAYMAN. 

"  Can  any  one  hear  us  here  V?  he  asked,  in  a  sharp 
whisper. 

"  If  you  come  on  very  private  business,"  answered  Mr. 
Aster,  pleasantly  humoring  the  adventure,  "I  have  no 
hesitation  in  stating,  that  the  parlor  keyhole  directly  at 
our  back  is  now  being  improved,  to  its  utmost  capacity, 
by  the  lady  of  the  house." 

"  That's  false,  Aster  !"  cried  a  shrill  voice  from  nowhere, 
immediately  followed  by  a  scurry  and  skirty  sound  in  the 
same  direction. 

"  Can't  we  go  into  some  room  for  a  moment  ?"  whis- 
pered the  startled  Toyman,  shrinking  back  to  the  opposite 
wall. 

Warned  by  the  ghostly  sounds  they  had  heard,  and 
struck  by  something  impressive  in  the  visitor's  manner, 
Aster  merely  said  "  Come  up,"  and  led  the  way  up-stairs 
to  his  own  bed-chamber.  Once  safely  within  there,  the 
strange  old  man  closed  the  door  behind  himself  with 
eager  haste,  and,  leaning,  almost  breathlessly,  against  it, 
turned  a  wild,  questioning  face  upon  the  drayman. 

"  Where  did  you  get  that  watch  ?" 

Concluding,  perhaps,  that,  unknown  to  himself,  his 
time-piece  had  become  celebrated,  and  must  be  in  de- 
mand, per  secret  agent,  for  some  incorrigible  collector 
of  curiosities,  Mr.  Aster  modestly  replied  that  he  had 
"  bought  it." 

"Who  of? — who  of ?"  was  the  impatient  return  ques- 
tion. 

Not  wishing  to  lower  the  value  of  the  silver  marvel  by 
stating  definitely  that  he  had  purchased  it  in  Chatham 
Street,  Mr.  Aster  twirled  his  steel  chain  with  a  great 
show  of  indifference,  and  replied  in  general  terms : — 

"  Of  a  leading  jeweler." 


TOYMAN  AND   DEAYMAN.  255 

"  That  can't  be,  that  can't  be,"  ejaculated  the  Toyman, 
working  his  claw-like  hands  as  though  he  could  tear  him 
to  pieces.  "  There  are  initials  on  the  inside.  No  jeweler 
would  dare  to  sell  it. — If  you  don't  want  me  to  go  mad 
and  tear  you,  tell  me  whom  you  stole  that  watch  from !" 

"Hay?" 

And  the  drayman  recoiled  as  the  word  shot  from  his 
lips,  while  the  very  window-panes  vibrated. 

"  There — there — there,"  purred  Geoffrey,  as  though 
soothing  a  startled  animal ;  what  time  a  strange  cunning 
seemed  mingling  with  the  hungry  violence  of  his  eager 
look,  "  I  know  you  didn't.  It  came  to  you  honestly. 
But  oh,  tell  me,  as  you  value  your  salvation,  who  is  she 
who  took  it  from  the  dead — from  Lydia  Dapple,  my  dead 
wife  ?  You  got  it  from  her,  and  can  tell  if  she  knows — 
if  she  lenows — ."  He  could  say  no  more,  but  actually 
sank  upon  his  knees  in  an  attitude  of  piteous,  abject  sup- 
plication ! 

Aster's  eyeglasses  devoured  him  with  a  gleaming  wild- 
ness  scarcely  less  than  his  own,  and  Aster  himself  could 
barely  ask,  in  faltering  voice — 

"  Ha— a— ay  S" 

"  Mr.  Lardner  has  sent  for  me,"  panted  the  poor  crea- 
ture again,  a  and  has  told  me  that  she  who  last  owned  the 
watch  is  in  your  father's  house.  Tell  me  what  she  knows : 
— for  you  must  have  known  her,  to  get  the  watch  hon- 
estly : — tell  me  if  Lydia  told  her " 

"  Confound  Lydia !"  roared  Mr.  Aster,  suddenly  realiz- 
ing that  he  was  being  mixed-up  in  some  "  woman-affair," 
and  shrinking  from  the  idea  with  a  horror  born  of  long 
misanthropy.     "  I  never  got  any  watch  from  Lydia " 

"  Say  no  more !"  interrupted  the  old  man,  hoarsely, 
springing  erect  as  he  spoke,  and  dragging  open  the  door. 


256  IN    A   BOX    AT   THE   OPERA. 

Then,  turning  upon  the  young  man  a  look  of  mingled 
resoluteness  and  despair,  and  lowering  his  voice  to  a  kind 
of  intensified  whisper,  he  said  :  "  Mark  me  ;  it  had  been 
better  for  others,  as  well  as  for  me,  if  you  had  told  me  what 
I  asked.  Thief,  or  honest  man,  you  have  scorned  the 
prayer  of  misery  and  made  it  desperate.     Good  bye." 

He  went  out  from  the  room,  and  down  to  the  street, 
leaving  the  drayman  staring  blankly  at  the  wall. 


XXX. 

IN   A   BOX    AT   THE    OPERA. 

FOR  a  flirtation,  a  stolen  interview,  or  an  evening's 
relief  from  any  possible  use  for  the  human  mind, 
there  is  no  place  in  America  like  a  private-box  at  the 
Italian  Opera.  The  shrine  of  Mozart,  Rossini,  Meyer- 
beer, Donizetti,  and  Yerdi,  was  devised  and  set  up  to  re- 
lieve certain  highly  cultivated  Court  aristocracies  of  the 
Old  "World  from  farther  patronage  of  the  vulgar  moimte- 
bankery  to  which  the  dramatic  stage  had  degenerated ; 
and  has  since  been  so  modified  and  adapted  to  suit  their 
peculiar  needs  and  tastes,  that  its  appropriateness  for  the 
intellectual  diversion  of  a  miscellaneous  Republican  de- 
mocracy like  ours  is  about  as  obvious  as  would  be  that 
of  a  Charlotte  Russe  for  the  noonday  meal  of  a  hearty 
ploughman.  The  great,  rough,  honest  West — the  most 
thoroughly  and  distinctively  American  portion  of  this 
Republic — is  frankly  unsnobbish  enough  to  face  this  fact 
in  the  best  national  spirit  of  independence,  and  seldom 


IX    A    BOX    AT   THE   OPERA.  257 

requires  much  time  to  bankrupt  the  misguided  impressario 
who  attempts  to  profit  by  an  imaginary  Nobility  there ; 
but  here  in  the  East,  along  the  piers  and  slips  of  the  Eu- 
ropean ferry,  where  JSTew  York  tries  to  be  the  Brooklyn, 
Philadelphia  the  Hoboken,  and  Boston  the  Communipaw 
of  London  and  Paris,  our  ever-provincial  fashionable  so- 
ciety readily  pays  the  board  and  travelling  expenses  of 
the  tawdry  Court  music-box,  for  the  mere  privilege  of 
I  sitting   around   it,  in   perfect   mental   vacuity,  so   many 
/  nights  in  a  year,  and  being  taken  (by  country  persons) 
'  for  the  very  style  of  superior  beings  who  started  this  sort 
of  thing. 

Human  nature,  however,  is  stronger  than  all  the  simu- 
lative ability  of  imitative  social  art,  and  a  private-box 
at  the  Italian  Opera  in  an  American  city  has  really  no 
more  to  do  with  understood  music,  or  specific  mentality 
of  any  kind,  than  has  a  room  in  a  hotel.  Excepting  a 
few  barbers'  apprentices  who  play  the  flute,  and  a  few 
pretty  young  pianoforte-birds  who  are  in  love  with  that 
tenor  who  sings  most  melodiously  through  his  nose,  the 
only  person  in  the  open  part  of  the  house  who  attaches 
any  idea  whatever  to  the  music  is  Byron  Cox,  Esq.,  (from 
whom  the  above  statement  of  the  whole  case  has  been 
procured  for  this  work  at  the  ludicrously  inadequate 
price  of  a  glass  of  beer) ;  and  more  flirtations,  stolen  in- 
terviews, and  hours  of  feeling  about  as  intellectual  as  a 
wax  flower,  have  been  enjoyed  by  the  true  discerners  of 
the  only  sensible  uses  of  an  Academy  of  Music  in  this 
country,  than  were  ever  encouraged  by  moonlight  and  a 
distant  hand-organ  combined. 

It  was  on  the  night  of  a  particularly  incomprehensible 
performance  by  the  imported  music-box  at  the  ^N'ew 
York  Academy  of  Music,  that  Miss  Lardner  and  Mr. 


258  IN   A   BOX   AT  THE   OPERA. 

Dinwiddie  Pamunkey  occupied  a  small,  well-furnished 
room  in  the  proscenium,  and  were  dimly  perceptible 
through  the  open  window  thereof  to  about  one  thousand 
vacant-minded  wearers  of  the  handsomest  frocks  and 
coats  in  the  city. 

They  had  a  certain  vague,  mechanical  consciousness 
between  them,  that  reminiscences  of  all  the  pianos,  brass 
bands,  and  hand-organs  of  the  period  were  being  run 
through  the  Italian  language  by  divers  walking  mouths 
npon  the  stage  below  their  casement ;  and  that  a  final 
vowel,  carried  np  to  ear-split  above  the  line  in  a  spiral 
scream,  and  kept  balanced  on  a  thin  shake  there  until 
it  wore  out,  was  expected  to  evoke  from  every  body  such 
demonstrations  with  hands  and  handkerchief  as  are  fre- 
quently of  use  to  frighten  some  shy  grimalkin  from  her 
leap  to  a  bird-cage  ;  but,  beyond  this,  no  special  require- 
ments of  place  disturbed  their  social  privacy,  and  sounds 
of  Italian  mirth  and  woe  were  to  them  bnt  as  the  hum 
of  many  servants  in  a  basement. 

"  My  de-yar  Miss  Lardner,"  said  Mr.  Pamunkey,  who, 
in  his  heavily  furred  coat,  sat  in  the  shade  of  a  curtain, 
u  wo'n't  you  leave  me  the  poo-ar  consolation  of  fancying 
that  I  have  been  too  precipitate — that  you  may  yet  be 
persuaded  to  regard  me  with  a  nearer  feeling  than  that 
with  which  you  have  hitherto  honored  me  ?" 

"  It  gives  me  real  pain,  believe  me,"  returned  Lucy, 
"  to  repeat  it,  but  I  can  give  you  no  encouragement,  Mr. 
Pamunkey,  to  hope  for  any  future  variation  from  the 
reply  I  have  been  obliged  to  make  you.  We  have  been 
such  good  friends  that  I  must  regret  your  recurrence  to 
that  which  should  not  again  be  mentioned  between  us." 

"  I  know  it's  taking  advantage  of  the  delicate  confi- 
dence which  induced  you  to  come  with  me  he-yar  to- 


IN   A   BOX   AT   THE   OPERA.  259 

night,"  said  the  gentleman,  struggling  to  regain  a  com- 
posed demeanor  ;  "  but  I  fe-yar  that  I  am  not  ne-yar  so 
good  a  philosopher  as  I  once  thought  myself.  The  ide- 
yar  of  being  accepted  by  you  as  a  friend,  which  once 
seemed  such  a  prize  for  my  ambition,  is  now  a  torture, 
Miss  Lardner,  when  its  consummation  proves  the  limit 
of  my  success." 

"  Then  I  have  acted  unwisely  in  accepting  your  escort 
hither,  Mr.  Pamunkey.  I  have  perilled  my  self-respect 
by  relying  too  confidently  upon  your  respect  for  me." 

Both  were  compelled,  here,  to  frighten  away  imaginary 
cats  in  response  to  a  quivering  vowel  just  balanced  in  the 
air  by  the  soprano,  and  when  the  Southerner  fell  back 
again  behind  the  curtain  he  wore  an  apologetic  and  dep- 
recating air. 

"  You  are  too  seve-yar,  Miss  Lardner.  I  heartily  ask 
pardon  for  speaking  as  I  did,  and  ought  not  to  blame  you 
if  you  withdrew  your  confidence  from  me  entirely. 
Pray  forgive  me.  You  need  have  no  fe-yar  that  I  shall 
so  abuse  your  reliance  again." 

"  We'll  both  forget  everything,  except  that  we  are 
very  good  friends,"  said  the  young  lady,  with  a  pleasant- 
ness of  manner  calculated  to  dismiss  the  whole  subject 
without  harshness  to  any  one's  feelings ;  and  directed  her 
dainty  lorgnette  to  a  party  of  acquaintances  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  house. 

When  a  man's  love-suit  has  been  once  decisively  re- 
jected, his  only  wise  course  is  to  withdraw  at  once  from 
the  unreciprocating  object  of  his  passion,  and  practice  a 
regular  daily  system  of  distracting  interests  until  his 
heart  shall  be  restored  to  its  normal  condition.  Poets 
and  sentimentalists  to  the  contrary  nothwithstanding,  this 
restoration  is  possible  in  every  case.     The  good  Father 


260  IN    A    BOX   AT   THE   OrEEA. 

above  never  created  man  or  woman,  to  be  made  perma- 
nently the  worse  merely  for  love  refused ;  nor  placed  it 
exclusively  in  the  power  of  any  one  human  being  to 
break  another's  heart.  Love  abused  is  ever  the  work  of 
the  two  involved  principally,  though  their  shares  toward 
the  end  may  be  vastly  disproportionate  ;  and  love  refused 
leaves  no  incurable  wound  in  any  human  heart  if  the  de- 
feated can  but  muster  common  sense  enough  to  retire 
promptly  from  the  lost  field  to  the  hospital. 

Too  many  rejected  lovers,  however,  will  persist  in  do- 
ing as  Mr.  Pamunkey  did.  He  continued  hovering 
around  the  steps  of  her  who  had  rejected  him,  perversely 
inviting  as  many  repetitions  of  his  wound  as  there  were 
moments  in  their  conversation,  and  all  the  time  intensi- 
fying his  own  pain  by  outraging  nature  with  the  pretence 
that  their  earlier  trustful  friendship  could  be  at  once 
resumed.  Like  other  women  under  these  circumstances, 
she  protected  herself  by  encouraging  this  last  baneful 
sophistry ;  and  now  the  poor  young  Yirginian  sat  wor- 
shipping her  beauty  and  trying  to  believe  that  they  were 
"  very  good  friends  "  again. 

A  grand  double  aerial  balance  of  spiralized  vowels  by 
the  soprano  and  first-tenor  had  just  been  lost  in  a  hideous 
crash  from  chorus  and  orchestra,  when — as  though  sum- 
moned from  nether  regions  by  the  sound — a  sinister  figure 
in  Spanish  cloak,  sombrero,  and  bone  eyeglasses,  entered 
the  private-box  and  looked  glassily  down  upon  the  two 
occupants. 

"  It's  that — it's  Mr.  Aster  !"  exclaimed  Mr.  Pamunkey, 
a  pang  of  jealousy  dividing  the  sentence. 

"  Why,  Cousin  John  !"  said  Lucy. 

Favoring  the  Southerner  with  a  merely  passing  glance 
of  considerable  depreciation,  the  stately  intruder  shook 


IN    A   BOX    AT   THE    OPERA.  201 

bands  with  his  surprised  and  blushing  cousin  in  what 
might  have  been  called  a  rather  pumpy  manner ;  and, 
drawing  a  third  chair  to  a  symmetrical  position  on  her 
flowing  skirts,  seated  himself  without  farther  ado. 

"  This  is  Mr.  Pamunkey,"  hinted  Lucy,  in  some  em- 
barrassment. The  two  gentlemen  exchanged  distant 
nods,  as  informing  each  other  that  they  should  be  mutu- 
ally acquainted  at  their  next  meeting  if  convenient ;  and 
the  new-comer  took  this  opportunity  to  remove  his  enor- 
mous hat  for  the  first  time,  and  abstractedly  hand  it  to 
Mr.  Pamunkey  to  hold. 

"I  beg  you  pardon,  Sir. —  The  itfe-yar!"  muttered 
the  latter,  balancing  the  valuable  trust  on  the  tips  of  his 
gloves  for  a  moment,  and  then  pitching  it  passionately  in- 
to a  corner. 

Upon  which  Mr.  Aster,  with  great  deliberation,  arose 
far  enough  from  his  chair  to  remove  the  other's  opera-hat, 
upon  which  he  had  been  sitting,  and  threw  that  into  the 
corner  also. 

"  Gentlemen  !"  whispered  Miss  Lardner,  quickly,  "  be 
kind  enough  to  remember  that  I  am  present." 

"  Yes,  Sir,"  observed  Mr.  Aster,  reprovingly,  "  remem- 
ber that  Miss  Lardner  and  I  are  present." 

"Respect  for  you,  Miss  Lardner,  shall  induce  me  to 
overlook,  temporarily,  the  extraordinary  conduct  of  this — 
person,"  said  the  exasperated  Southerner,  speaking  with 
intense  emphasis,  and  darting  a  furious  look  at  the  offender. 

"  I  appreciate  your  great  forbearance,  Sir.  Cousin 
John,  if  you  can  be  civil  for  a  moment,  I  should  like  to 
know  how  you  found  us  ?" 

Leaning  back  in  his  chair,  until  certain  buttons  and  a 
widening  girth  of  white  linen,  as  seen  behind  the  opening 
in  his  cloak,  gave  him  the  appearance  of  having  a  gigantic 


262  IN   A  BOX   AT   THE   OPEEA. 

and  poorly-toothed  mouth  at  his  waist,  the  self-possessed 
young  man  dressed  his  hair  with  his  fingers,  and  replied,  in 
general  terms,  that  he  had  recognized  her  from  the  floor  of 
the  house,  and  had  taken  the  elderly  gentleman  beside 
her  for  her  father. 

u  Yon  couldn't  see  me,  Sir,  from  down  the-yar !"  ex- 
claimed the  freshly-aggravated  Virginian,  forgetting  him- 
self. 

"  Mr.  Pamunkey — now  please !"  pleaded  Miss  Lardner, 
as  usual. 

"I  beg  your  pardon.     I'll  say  no  mo-war." 

"  That  will  make  it  pleasanter  for  all  parties,"  com- 
mented Aster,  with  an  air  of  complacent  approval.  "  I 
have  frequently  noticed,  that  interruptions  by  a  third  par- 
ty corrupt  good  manners.  If  you'll  just  be  good  enough, 
Sir,  to  exchange  seats  now  with  Miss  Lardner,  and,  by  an 
exclusive  attention  to  the  stage,  qualify  yourself  to  inform 
us  when  Kirby  dies,  my  Cousin  and  I  can  pursue  that  pri- 
vate conversation  upon  family  affairs  which  your  presence 
here  has  interrupted." 

Repressing  his  wrath  only  long  enough  to  join  with 
them  in  the  socially- obligatory  applause  just  then  demand- 
ed by  the  basso's  brilliant  and  tremulous  descent  into  the 
sub-cellar  of  his  voice, — Mr.  Pamunkey  sprang  to  his  feet, 
recovered  his  hat,  and  addressed  himself  in  a  forced  and 
jerky  manner  to  the  alarmed  young  lady  : — 

"  I  must  beg  your  permission,  Miss  Lardner,  to  with- 
draw from  the  box,  until  this — this  gentleman  shall  see 
fit  to  leave  you.  I  do  not  desi-yar  to  lose  my  temper  in  a 
lady's  presence,  and  must  really  ask  leave  to  reti-yar.  I 
have  the  honor,  Miss  Lardner,  to  take  my  leave,  tempo- 
rarily." And,  with  an  exceedingly  nervous  bow,  he  re- 
treated hastily  from  the  box. 


Df    A    BOX    AT   THE   OPERA.  2G3 

u  Now,  Sir/*  Baid  Lucy  to  her  cousin,  pointing  iraperi 
ously  toward  the  door  with  her  fan,  u  you  can  go  too  !'' 

"  Thank  you,  Lucy,''  said  Mr.  Aster,  smiling  agreeably ; 
"  but  I've  given  that  up.     I  can't  afford  it." 

rt  "What  do  you  mean  P 

"  I  mean,"  said  he,  with  some  impatience,  "that  I  nev- 
er go  out  to  take  anything  between  the  Acts.  If  I  did,  I'd 
be  too  proud  to  take  it  at  Pamunkey's  expense." 

Miss  Lardner  drew  the  curtain  of  the  box,  that  they 
might  not  be  too  conspicuous  to  the  party  in  the  opposite 
proscenium-apartment,  and  then  turned  upon  her  eccen- 
tric companion  a  look  of  the  keenest  reproach. 

"Cousin  John/'  she  said,  biting  her  rosy  lips,  '"you 
certainly  are  the  most  ridiculous  man  alive.  Too  seem 
quite  good-natured  this  evening — for  you, — and  yet  you 
have  driven  one  of  my  kindest  friends  away  in  anger." 

"I  endeavored  to  treat  him  as  an  equal,"  responded 
Aster,  drawing  himself  up.  "  I  made  no  stranger  of  him. 
If  you  desire  it,  I  will  go  down  to  the  bar-room  and  ask 
him  to  return.'' 

u  Dear  me  !  "What's  the  use  of  talking  reason  to  you  ! 
How  dare  you  mention  such  places  to  a  lady  ?" 

Aster's  face  darkened  at  this,  and,  reaching  for  his 
spacious  hat,  he  seemed  inclined  to  depart. 

k'I  see  how  it  is,''  he  sighed.  ;"  You've  got  on  your 
good-clothes  and  can't  stand  anything  plainer  than  a  man 
with  fur  on  his  overcoat.  So  be  it,  then.  I  took  you  for 
a  friend  of  mine,  and  wanted  to  talk  to  you  a  minute  by 
yourself  about  my  Father,  and — that  other  matter  ;  but  I 
haven't  got  fur  on  my  coat,  and  I'll  retire  again  to  the 
cheap  part  of  the  house." 

The  extreme  point  and  bitterness  of  his  concluding 
sarcasm,  accompanied  as  it  was  by  a  despairing  gleam  of 


264-  IN  A   BOX   AT   THE   OPERA. 

the  eyeglasses,  were  too  much  for  the  young  lady's  soft 
heart.  The  strange  mastery  of  this  man  over  her  weak 
womanly  nature  asserted  itself  again,  and  she  tapped  his 
cloaked  arm  coquettishly  with  her  fan. 

"  Don't  be  too  absurd,  Cousin  John.  I  really  wish  to 
talk  with  you  about  what  you've  mentioned." 

"  Then  all  is  forgiven,"  rejoined  he,  dropping  his  hat. 
— "  Just  wait  a  minute." 

After  a  struggling  and  diving  motion  with  one  of  his 
arms  under  his  astonishing  cloak,  he  suddenly  thrust 
his  right  hand  over  his  cousin's  lap,  and  deposited 
about  a  score  of  monstrous  peanuts  on  her  costly  lace 
handkerchief;  reserving,  however,  a  few  for  himself. 
"  We  can  eat  and  talk  at  the  same  time,"  said  he, 
genially. 

"  Take  the  hateful  things  away !"  exclaimed  Lucy,  hor- 
ror-stricken. "  I'll  throw  them  on  the  floor  if  you  don't, 
I  tell  you !" 

The  man's  morbid  sensitiveness  was  alarmed  again, 
and,  fiercely  clutching  the  despised  delicacies  from  their 
resting  place,  he  tore  back  the  curtain  from  the  front  of 
the  box. 

"  Let  the  public  struggle  for  them  then,"  growled  he, 
with  suppressed  fierceness ;  and  was  about  to  cast  them 
forth,  when  the  affrighted  girl  caught  his  arm. 

u  They'll  go  all  over  the  stage  and  into  the  orchestra," 
she  gasped,  in  a  frenzied  whisper. 

"  Let  them,  then !"  hissed  Aster.  "  They're  of  no  value 
to  me  now.  I'd  as  soon  drop  them  on  that  fiddler  with  a 
bald  head  as  not." 

"  Oh-h-h — I'll  take  them,  then,"  groaned  Lucy,  in  des- 
peration.    "  Put  them  on  that  chair." 

Doing  as  he  was  requested,  and  dropping  the  curtain, 


IN   A   BOX   AT   THE    OPERA.  265 

the  excitable  young  man  leaned  back  again  in  his  seat 
and  cracked  a  nut. 

"  We've  but  a  minute  now,"  said  Lucy,  "  before  the 
Act  begins.  Have  you  been  to  your  Father's  since  you 
were  at  our  house  3" 

Mr.  Aster  nodded. 

"  How  were  you  received  ?"      m 

"My  Father,"  said  he,  gloomily,  " did  not  recognize 
me.  He  evidently  took  me  for  one  of  his  wife's  relatives, 
and  told  me  to  depart.  After  which  my  unnatural  Step- 
mother talked  me  blind.  I  was  talked  wild !"  he  exclaimed, 
smiting  the  chair  holding  the  peanuts  with  such  force, 
that — to  Lucy's  joy, — the  latter  flew  in  every  direction. 

"  She  must  work  against  us  continually,"  commented 
Lucy ;  and,  in  a  still  lower  voice — "  she  has  not  yet  let 
him  know  what  we  have  found  out  about  that  wicked 
charge  against  you.  Cousin  John,  Pa  has  seen  Mr.  Dap- 
ple.— Have  you  ever  seen  Mr.  Dapple  since — since  that 
day?" 

"  I  have,"  said  Mr.  Aster,  sternly,  "  and  he  asked,  by 
heavens!  who  I  stole  —  stole,  mind  you, —  the  watch 
from?" 

" Now  that  you  confide  enough  in  Pa  and  me  to  men- 
tion the  watch  yourself,"  whispered  his  cousin,  eagerly, 
"I'll  tell  you  something.  The  owner  of  the  watch  is 
found,  and  can  describe  the  real  thief;  and  Pa  has  told 
Mr.  Dapple  that  he  must  return  the  watch  to  the  court. 
See,  now,  how  we're  working  for  you,  while  you're  doing 
nothing  for  yourself  but  delivering  Essays  on  Man,  and 
driving  that  hateful  dray — " 

"Hat?" 

The  ear-piercing  sound  not  only  made  the  young  lady 
drop  her  lorgnette  and  jump  almost  out  of  her  ermine- 
1 1 


266  IN   A    BOX    AT   THE    OPERA. 

trimmed  opera  cloak ;  but  also  startled  even  Byron  Cox, 
Esq.,  who,  in  his  cheap  standing-place  down  near  the 
orchestra,  had  been  much  exasperated  before  by  the  talking 
in  the  box,  and  now  said  "  Silence !  For  shame !"  in  a  deep, 
husky  voice. 

"  I  never  did — !  You'll  frighten  me  to  death  yet, 
Cousin  John.  I  didn't  mean  to  remind  you  of  your  pov- 
erty, I'm  sure.''' 

"No  matter,"  said  Aster,  wildly,  "No  matter." 

"  You've  startled  every  idea  out  of  my  head,"  added 
Lucy,  greatly  disturbed. — "  There's  the  Act  commencing, 
too.  Will  you  come  to  see  us  on  New  Year's  Day  %  I 
sha'n't  receive  general  calls;  but  jou  must  come,  and 
learn  what  more  has  been  done." 

To  this  hastily-offered  proposition  Mr.  Aster  nodded  in 
a  vague,  preoccupied  manner ;  and,  noticing  a  motion  of 
the  door  to  the  box,  sprang  thither,  and  pushed  said  door 
open  with  such  haste,  that  Mr.  Pamunkey,  who  was  on 
the  other  side  of  it,  received  a  bump  on  the  forehead. 

"I'm  going  now,"  said  he,  hurriedly,  dragging  the  other 
gentleman  in  by  the  hand,  and  then  shaking  that  mem- 
ber with  immoderate  violence.  "  Hope  you'll  pardon  me 
for  keeping  you  out  in  the  cold,  and  overlook  any  pecu- 
liarity of  manner,  Pamunkey.     Will  you,  Pamunkey  ?" 

"  I've  no  ide-y&r"  began  Mr.  Pamunkey,  irascible  and 
out  of  breath — "I've  no  ide-yar,  Sir,  what  you  mean 
by—" 

"Here!"  interrupted  Aster, still  wild  in  look  and  man- 
ner, as  he  quickly  caught  the  opera-hat  from  the  other's 
hand.  "Make  no  apologies.  Here's  your  hat  again. 
Good  night,  Lucy.  Farewell  P."  And  he  slipped  away 
through  the  door  as  though  quite  unable  to  bear  that  at- 
mosphere a  second  longer. 


MRS.    DEDLEY    ASKS   FOK   INSTRUCTIONS.  207 

"  The  ide-jar  !"  ejaculated  the  overwhelmed  Southern 
gentleman,  discovering  that  his  hat  was  half  full  of  peanuts. 

"  Please  close  that  door,  Mr.  Pamunkey,"  said  Lucy,  not 
much  less  overcome.  "  My  cousin  must  certainly  be  los- 
ing his  senses." 


XXXI. 

MRS.    DEDLEY   ASKS    FOR   INSTRUCTIONS. 

FROM  the  evening  when  his  imposing  Mother  gave 
him  such  an  imperfect  yet  alarming  insight  of  her  plots 
and  perils,  Theodore  Danforth  lost  much  of  his  healthy 
vivacity  of  manner ;  and  became  subject  to  fits  of  abstrac- 
tion which  led  his  professional  associates  at  Riverside  to 
suspect  him  of  malignant  Febris  Amantiurn.  In  other 
words,  the  giant  minds  of  the  medici  brothers  entertained 
the  subtle  fancy  that  he  had  prescribed  a  young  woman 
for  himself,  and  found  her  hard  to  take ;  and,  as  this  di- 
agnosis of  his  case  was  not  much  nearer  a  discovery  of  the 
real  disease  than  medical  students  in  a  hospital  generally 
come,  the  young  man  allowed  it  to  pass  undisputed.  Be- 
tween Mrs.  Aster  and  himself  there  had  never  been  much 
harmony  of  opinion  respecting  the  policy  pursued  toward 
the  drayman  ;  but  neither  that,  nor  the  reminder  of  his 
father's  character  and  fate,  could  have  disconcerted  him  so 
much  as  the  lady's  almost  incredible  confession  of  her  pri- 
vate dealings  with  a  man  of  Stalker's  calling.  That,  in 
the  young  man's  mind,  was  ominous  of  everything  humil- 
iating and  perilous  Sloth  0llld  befall  a  woman.     It  struck 


268  MRS.    DEDLEY    ASKS    FOE   INSTRUCTION'S. 

cruelly  at  the  exultant  filial  pride,  with  which,  despite  his 
unavoidable  knowledge  of  her  actress-art,  he  had  always 
regarded  his  handsome  mother ;  and  to  have  seen  her 
humbling  herself  to  him,  that  she  might  no  longer 
fear  the  dastard  threats  of  an  ignoble  secret  agent,  was  to 
know  thenceforth  the  miserable  hnman  shortcomings  of 
one  of  the  few  unselfish  idealizations  of  youth  which  all  so 
wither  upon  their  pedestals  as  mind  matures  and  the  heart 
grows  wordly-wise. 

Taciturn  in  his  new  gravity,  he  was  preparing  to  follow 
the  House-Physician  in  his  round  of  certain  wards,  on  the 
morning  after  Miss  Lardner's  experience  of  Asterial  ec- 
centricity at  the  Opera,  when  the  Warden  stopped  him 
with  the  intelligence  that  a  lady  was  awaiting  an  inter- 
view with  him  in  the  reception  room. 

"  A  lady  ?"  answered  he,  surprised.  "  Did  she  give  no 
name,  Warden  ?" 

"  No  name,"  responded  the  official.  u  But,  for  all  the 
thick  veil,  I  think  it's  Mrs.  Dedley." 

"  Word  from  home,  then,  I  suppose,"  mused  Danforth, 
at  a  loss  to  find  any  other  explanation.  "  Very  well:  I'll 
see  her." 

Excusing  himself  to  Doctor  Kirke,  he  repaired  forth- 
with to  the  room  indicated,  and  recognized  the  nurse, 
even  before  she  had  spoken  or  raised  her  veil. 

"  Good  morning,  Mrs.  Dedley.  No  bad  news  from 
home,  I  hope  ?" 

"  No,  Sir.  Mr.  Aster  still  improves,  and  Mrs.  Aster  is 
well." 

She  said  it  with  an  assumption  of  her  ordinary  staid 
manner;  but  the  young  doctor  detected  repressed  embar- 
rassment in  a  certain  avoidance  of  his  direct  glance  and  an 
unnecessary  smoothing  <  rs  that  c 


MRS.    DEDLEY    ASKS    FOR   INSTRUCTIONS.  2G9 

"No  disagreement,  I  hope,  between  my  Mother  and 
yourself,  Mrs.  Dedley  ?" 

"  None,  Sir,— yet." 

There  was  no  mistaking  the  connection  of  some  peculiar 
significance  with  this  reply,  and,  after  looking  keenly  at 
her  in  silence  for  a  moment,  Danforth  drew  his  chair 
nearer  to  hers  and  lowered  his  voice. 

"  I  must  conclude,  then,"  said  he,  u  that  there  is  some 
likelihood  of  such  a  disagreement,  and  you  have  come 
here  to  speak  with  me  about  it.     Is  that  it  ?" 

"  Something  of  that  kind,  Sir,"  returned  Mrs.  Dedley, 
hesitating.  "  Not  exactly  that,  either.  I  should  not  have 
taken  the  liberty  to  trouble  you  about  an  ordinary  con- 
tingency. Doctor  Danforth," — and  now  her  eyes  met  his 
steadily — "  I  have  come  to  ask  instructions  from  you. 
Now  that  the  poor  little  babe  is  dead,  and  your  Mother 
has  really  no  further  need  of  a  nurse  to  aid  her  in  taking 
care  of  Mr.  Aster,  do  you  desire  me  to  remain  there  still  ?" 

"  I  should  think  that  was  a  question  for  my  Mother  to 
settle,"  answered  he,  more  puzzled  by  her  look  than  her 
speech. 

u  But,  if  your  Mother  proposes  no  change,  do  you  wish 
me  to  remain,  Doctor  Danforth  ?" 

"  I  don't  understand  you,  Ma'am." 

"  I  hoped  you  would  understand,  Sir  ;  as  it's  very  un- 
pleasant, and,  perhaps,  improper,  for  one  in  my  station  to 
be  more  definite  on  such  a  subject,"  said  Mrs.  Dedley, 
much  embarrassed  again. 

"  I  must  ask  you  to  speak  fully,  and  in  plain  terms,  at 
once,"  rejoined  Danforth,  sharply.  "I  do  not  get  the 
least  glimmer  of  your  meaning  yet." 

"I  must  not  mince  matters  then,  of  course.  Since  I 
have  been  in  your  Mother's  service,  Sir,  it  has  beeu  a  part 


270  MRS.    DEDLEY   ASKS   FOR   INSTRUCTIONS. 

of  my  duty,  prescribed  in  so  many  words  by  her,  to  re- 
main always  in  the  room  with  Mr.  Aster  while  such  rela- 
tives of  his  as  she  did  not  wish  to  intrude  upon  were  call- 
ing, and  to  inform  her  afterwards  of  all  they  said  and  did. 
In  directing  me  to  do  this,  Mrs.  Aster  said  that  such  a  course 
would  be  necessary  in  order  to  thwart  the  design  of  those, 
who,  by  working  unrestrained  upon  a  sick  gentleman's 
weakness,  might  help  undeserving  interests  opposed  to — 
yours,  Sir." 

Theodore  moved  uneasily  upon  his  chair  during  this 
carefully-worded  speech,  and  colored  with  mortified  manly 
pride  at  its  conclusion. 

"  I  think  you  have  misunderstood  Mrs.  Aster,"  he  said, 
making  an  unsuccessful  attempt  to  appear  honestly  in- 
credulous. "  She  has  intended  your  extra  service  only  for 
very  exceptional  emergencies  : — for  times  when  some  ill- 
advised  intruder  should  wish  to  cause  an  excitement  in 
my  father's  sick-room.  She  desired  you  to  be  there  as  a 
restraint,  in  her  absence." 

"  ]STo,  sir,"  said  the  nurse,  with  uncompromising  deci- 
sion of  manner,  "  that  was  not  all.  In  plain  words,  I 
have  been  engaged  in  helping  Mrs.  Aster  to  prevent  a 
reconciliation  between  her  husband  and  Mr.  John  As- 
ter. I  am  very,  very  grateful  to  you,  Doctor  Danforth, 
and  have  acted  this  part  entirely  out  of  gratitude  to 
you.  If  you  instruct  me  to  continue,  I'll  try  to  do 
'so " 

"  Stop  a  moment,  Madam,"  interrupted  Danforth,  ve- 
hemently. "What  particular  circumstance  brings  you 
here  with  this  confession  now  ?  You  must  have  some 
especial  object." 

"  I  have,  Doctor  Danforth.  The  watch  which  Mr. 
Aster  has  been  led  to  suspect  his  son  of  stealing,  was 


MRS.    DEDLEY    ASKS    FOR   INSTRUCTIONS.  271 

mine ;  was  picked  from  my  pocket  in  the  street  by  a 
coarse,  common  man  whom  I  should  know  again,  and  who 
was  not  your  Stepbrother.  The  thief,  frightened  by  the 
police,  perhaps,  must  have  slipped  it  into  your  Stepbro- 
ther's pocket,  in  the  crowd.  At  any  rate,  an  old  man, 
who  thought,  in  a  momentary  panic,  that  he  had  lost  his 
own  watch,  made  an  outcry,  and  had  your  Stepbrother 
arrested,  and  claimed  the  watch  found  on  him.  Your 
Stepbrother  escaped  from  the  court-room  in  the  middle  of 
the  proceedings,  and,  by  some  means,  your  mother  heard 
of  the  case,  and  told  her  husband." 

"  Yes  !"  ejaculated  Danforth,  a  new  light  falling  upon 
his  mother's  mysterious  detective  association. 

"Well,  sir,  the  man  who  mistakenly  claimed  that 
watch — and  it  was  just  like  his  own,  which  he  had  really 
left  at  home,  I  hear, — turns  out  to  be  the  husband  of 
the  poor,  unfriended  woman-patient  in  this  hospital,  who 
gave  the  watch  to  me  with  her  dying  breath.  Your  Step- 
brother's friends  have  found  all  this  out,  and  I  understand 
that  they  intend  to  clear  the  innocent  man  by  calling  Mr. 
Dapple  and  me  into  Court.  If  that  happens — Heaven 
help  me  ! — I  may  be  forced  to  reveal  something  of  your 
own  family-matters.  Your  mother  has  not  allowed  me 
to  tell  Mr.  Aster  what  I  know ;  and  he,"  she  concluded, 
slowly  and  significantly,  "  might  be  surprised  to  learn  it, 
for  the  first  time,  from  the  newspapers." 

With  head  resting  on  hand,  Theodore  Danforth  pon- 
dered it  all  in  gloomy  discomposure.  A  detective  mak- 
ing his  Mother  afraid,  and  a  hired  nurse  telling  him  this 
story !  Wrong,  wrong,  all  wrong :  and  retribution  al- 
ready coming  on.  He  raised  his  head,  and  both  startled 
and  pained  the  woman  by  the  keenly  distressed  expres- 
sion of  his  countenance. 


272  MRS.    DEDLEY    ASKS    FOR    INSTRUCTIONS. 

"  If  yoa  leave  there,"  said  he,  with  an  effort,  "  where 
can  yon  go  ?" 

"  I  think  I  can  make  provision  for  myself  elsewhere, 
Sir,  if  you  instruct  me  to  leave  yonr  Mother.  1  think 
that  I  could  escape  the  Court-business  by  going." 

"  Very  well,  Mrs.  Dedley,"  he  said,  in  a  subdued  and 
measured  way,  "  then  we  will  end  this  interview  with  a 
very  few  words.  I'm  obliged  to  you  for  your  confidence 
in  coming  to  me  for  instructions,  and  appreciate  your 
fidelity  to  the  idea  that  you  have  been  acting  for  my  in- 
terest. You  know  what  is  Right  and  what  is  Wrong  in 
such  an  unfortunate  family-affair  as  this,  quite  as  well  as 
I  can  tell  you,  and  will  not  expect  me  to  discuss  a  thing 
so  delicate  and  painful.  Your  duty  is  plain.  Do  what 
is  Right.  If  you  consider  yourself  under  any  obligation 
to  me,  discharge  it  generously  by  sparing  my  Mother  as 
much  annoyance  from  what  you  may  do  as  may  be  possi- 
bly avoidable  in  doing  it.  Do  that  much  for  my  sake ; 
the  rest  for  the  sake  of  your  own  self-respect  and  honora- 
ble principle.     Do  you  understand  me  ?" 

"  It  is  just  what  I  expected  you  would  say,  Doctor 
Danforth.     I  shall  do  as  you  advise." 

"  Then,  Good-bye,  Mrs.  Dedley.  Wherever  you  may 
be  in  future,  my  best  wishes  shall  be  yours." 

The  woman  hung  upon  his  extended  hand  for  a  mo- 
ment, and  looked  into  his  troubled  eyes  as  though  yearn- 
ing with  a  kind  of  motherly  tenderness  to  comfort  him  ; 
but  he  withdrew  the  hand  and  turned  his  head  aside,  and 
she  went  from  him  without  farther  speech. 

Left  alone,  the  young  doctor  dropped  back  into  his 
chair  and  stared  moodily  at  the  ground.  He  saw  his 
own  fair  prospects  clouding  under  some  coming  calamity 
of  which  only  a  vague  foreshadowing  reached  him  now  ; 


SACRIFICE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL.  273 

but  that  he  could  have  smiled  at.  He  saw  his  own  su- 
preme ideal  turning  to  sordid  dust  before  his  eyes,  and 
that  he  wept  over. 


XXXII. 

SACRIFICE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

WHO  said  it  wasn't  Christmas-Eve  ?  The  maker 
of  that  sour-minded  assertion  should  have  been 
in  Constantinople,  or  Teheran,  or  any  other  unChristian 
place  ;  for  he  certainly  had  no  business  in  good  old 
Gotham,  where  the  night  of  the  twenty-fourth  of  De- 
cember is  lighter  in  men's  hearts  than  the  brightest  noon- 
day of  all  the  rest  of  the  year.  Wasn't  it  Christmas-Eve, 
indeed,  when  every  living  thing,  from  Harlem  Bridge  to 
Castle  Garden,  knew,  and  felt,  and  proved  that  it  was ! 
Wasn't  it  Christmas-Eve,  indeed,  when  a  million  of 
people  all  forgave  each  other  every  offence  of  a  twelve- 
month, and  experienced  nothing  but  good- will  to  the 
whole  world,  and  couldn't  have  got  up  one  angry  thought 
between  them  if  they'd  tried  ever  so  hard !  Wasn't — 
But  never  mind. 

All  the  gas-lights  twinkled,  like  stars  caught  and  put 
into  cages,  and  winked  to  each  other  that  there  would  be 
no  charge  from  the  Gas  Companies  for  that  night.  All 
the  great  streets  let  the  little  streets  cross  them  as  much 
as  they  pleased,  without  showing  the  least  anger ;  and 
all  the  little  streets  got  so  sloppy  with  amiability  that 
the  keenest  detector  of  crossness  could  hardly  believe 
that  there  was  a  single  cross-walk  amongst  them.  Ail 
12* 


274  SACRIFICE   OF   THE   WALKING-   DOLL. 

the  people  were  out-doors  in  one  unbroken  army  of  good- 
humor ;  swarming  in  and  ont  of  the  glittering  shops ; 
joyfully  scudding  along  over  the  nice  splashy  pavements ; 
laughing  merrily  at  the  car  and  omnibus  drivers  who 
now  and  then  ran  over  a  plump  child  for  a  joke ;  and 
seeking  out  the  poor  in  all  the  poultry  markets  and  meat- 
stands  in  town.  Men  slipped  down  on  knobs  of  ice  be- 
fore area  railings,  and  jovially  hoped,  as  they  limped 
pleasantly  up  again,  that  the  owner  of  the  sidewalk  would 
have  a  Merry  Christmas.  Women  were  cheerily  dashed 
with  melted  snow  and  festive  mud  by  the  facetious  wheels 
of  passing  vehicles,  and  gleefully  wished  that  the  honest 
drivers  might  all  have  plum-puddings  to-morrow.  Old 
gentlemen  took  actual  pride  in  letting  stout  and  rollicking 
poor  men  tread  on  their  corns,  and  then  beaming  genially 
on  the  good  fellows.  Away  uptown,  and  over  along 
either  river,  the  thicker  necked  revelers  remembered  that 
it  was  Christmas-Eve,  and  could  hardly  bear  to  kill  those 
they  amusingly  robbed.  Away  downtown,  the  lighter- 
fingered  roysterers  silently  blessed  those  in  whose  pockets 
they  found  their  Merry  Christmas.  All  the  rich,  who 
were  at  law  with  each  other,  agreed  to  keep  away  from 
court  for  that  night.  All  the  j>oor  who  were  starving, 
exchanged  resolutions  to  stop  starving  until  Christmas 
Eve  was  over. — Wasn't  Christmas  Eve  ?  That  man  '11 
be  a  murderer,  or  Congressman,  yet. 

All  through  this  Eve  of  rampant  good-will  and  good- 
humor,  Dapple's  famous  toy-store  was  crammed  with 
impersonators  of  Santa  Claus,  nine-tenths  of  whom  expe- 
rienced nothing  but  amiable  fondness  for  their  fellow- 
creatures  while  standing  still  on  wet  feet  until  the  other 
tenth  could  be  waited  upon.  Dollie  and  Canary  darted, 
and  bustled,  and  handed  down  this,  and  wrapped-up  that, 


SACRIFICE    OF   TJIE    WALKING   DOLL.  275 

and  took  the  money  for  the  other,  until  midnight ;  enjoy- 
ing their  Christmas  Eve  all  the  more,  perhaps,  in  that 
they  had  no  time  to  think  about  the  haggard,  glowering, 
and  weird  figure  crouching  sullenly  by  the  stove  in  the 
back-room. 

Shut  in  there  by  himself ;  no  longer  knowing  or  caring 
bow  his  own  old  world  of  toys  caught  sunshine  or  shadow  ; 
the  broken-down  man  sat,  hour  after  hour,  in  one  droop- 
ing position  near  the  fire,  holding  listlessly  in  his  hand 
the  unsightly  clock-work  of  the  Walking  Doll.  There 
he  brooded,  unmindful  of  the  busy  hum  beyond  the  little 
door  ;  unmindful  of  the  hour  of  night,  or  time  of  year  ; 
unmindful  of  all  that  walked  the  earth,  save  the  dead 
woman  who  often  moved  before  him  in  that  tall  window 
yonder,  and  the  man  who  saw  her,  and  saw  him,  when 
she  lay  bleeding  on  that  very  floor.  That  man  stood  now 
where  he  had  stood  a  year  ago  ;  lived  his  life  ;  was  mas- 
ter of  all  that  had  been  his  ;  and,  after  treading  him 
down  out  of  his  place  ;  down  into  the  hopeless,  sleepless, 
maddening  misery  of  the  damned  in  life  ;  could  dare  to 
mock  him  with  a  hypocrisy  of  pity,  and,  through  it,  wile 
away  his  last  true  heart !  What  price  was  this  he  was 
paying  to  his  enemy  to  live  ?  All  that  a  death,  even  the 
most  shameful,  could  take  from  him — even  his  daughter's 
soul !  And  this  !  —  this  futile,  never-moving  clock-work 
in  his  hand — what  was  it  but  the  wreck  of  his  own  intel- 
lect ;  growing  no  more  from  that  fell  moment  of  its  lost 
solution  than  his  mind  had  traveled  from  the  awful 
memory  of  the  loss.  It  could  never  get  beyond  that. 
His  manhood,  wrecked  upon  that  horror,  could  never 
drag  away  from  it  on  any  wave  ;  could  only  work  its 
own  shattered  outline  in  shifting  sand,  and  be  mocked  by 
it,  and  be  held  to  further  crashing  ruin  by  it. 


276  SACRIFICE    OF   THE   WALKING-   DOLL. 

"Merry  Christmas  is  here,  with  a  laugh  and  a  cheer, — 
Let  all  your  old  troubles  and  quarrels  be  ended  ; 
For  the  friends  that  are  near  brew  the  punch  and  draw  beer, 
And  pledge  a  good  wish  to  the  foe  who's  offended  : 
Though  with  him.  was  the  spite 
And  with  you  was  the  right, 
In  bumper  to  bumper  forgive  him  To-night. 
For  whoever  makes  plea  'neath  the  Evergreen  Tree, 
A  prince  of  good  fellows  and  welcome  should  be." 

So  sang  a  crew  of  roysterers,  grotesquely  attired,  as 
they  swaggered,  not  over-soberly,  past  the  toy-store  ;  and 
Doctor  Canary,  who  had  paused  a  moment  near  the 
show-window  to  listen,  smiled  sadly  at  the  words.  It 
was  quite  midnight,  the  last  buyer  had  departed,  and 
Dollie,  after  restoring  to  their  shelves  such  articles  of  the 
wonderfully  lessened  stock  as  had  not  been  sold,  was  pre- 
paring to  retire  from  business.  Still  the  splashy  outer 
street  resounded  with  horns,  bacchanalian  bellows,  and 
other  murmurs  of  general  happiness ;  and  the  clerk  could 
not  help  remarking  the  contrast  between  such  notes  of 
world-wide  rejoicing,  and  the  sudden  gloomy  silence  of 
the  old  house  they  stood  in. 

"  I'm  afraid  this  Christmas  just  coming  in  brings  but 
little  holiday-feelings  to  you,  Miss  Dollie,"  he  remarked, 
while  rolling  back  his  sleeves  before  carrying  out  the 
shutters. 

"  I'm  very,  very  tired,"  said  Dollie ;  and  looked  it. 

"Mr.  Dapple  has  not  shown  himself  at  all  to-night." 

"No.  Since  he  came  home  so  miserable,  on  Sunday,  he 
has  not  been  in  the  store  once." 

"Do  you  think  of  going  up  to  your  room  immediately, 
Miss  Dollie  ?"  asked  Canary  ;  and  added,  before  she  could 
answer,  "I  think  it  may  be  well  for  me  to  have  a  little 
private  conversation  with  your  Father  to-night." 


PACRIFICE   OF   THE    WALKING   DOLL.  277 

"  I  shall  go  up-stairs  right  away  after  bidding  Father 
good-night.     I  wish  I  dared  give  him  Merry  Christmas." 

"  May  this  be  the  last  dark  Christmas  for  either  of 
yon !"  said  the  clerk  earnestly ;  and  forthwith  commenced 
the  shutting-up  duties  devolving  upon  him  through  the 
illness  of  Mr.  Goggle. 

Dollie  passed  wearily  enough  down  the  evergreen  grove 
to  the  unblest  room  of  the  Walking  Doll,  and  found  the 
old  Toyman  still  sitting,  as  has  been  described,  in  the 
attitude  of  some  sinister  goblin  at  a  banned  hearthside. 
To  her  whispered  "  good-night,  and  God  bless  you  !"  he 
offered  no  response ;  nor  seemed  to  heed  the  all-loving 
kiss  pressed  tenderly  upon  his  wrinkled  forehead.  She 
stood  over  him  a  moment  with  unspeakable  sorrow  in  her 
regretful  parting  glance ;  then  went  softly  from  the  room 
and  up  to  her  own  chamber. 

Doctor  Canary,  entering  soon  after,  also  stood  over  the 
unheeding  dreamer  of  dark  things ;  but,  instead  of  pass- 
ing on  thereafter,  placed  a  hand  kindly  yet  firmly  upon  the 
Toyman's  shoulder. 

"  Geoffrey  Dapple,"  he  said,  measuredly ;  u  do  you 
know  that  this  is  Christmas :  the  time  to  forgive  your 
enemy  ?" 

Slowly  lifting  and  turning  his  head,  until  his  sunken 
eyes  met  those  of  the  speaker  in  a  look  of  baleful  hatred, 
Geoffrey  made  this  answer :  "I  am  here  to  be  Alone. 
The  rest  of  this  house  is  yours.  If  there  is  a  devil  in  hell 
to  warn  you,  go  out  of  this  room : — yes,  go  out  of  this 
house! — for  to-night.  I  have  been  thinking  all  too  much 
of  you  here,  and  you  are  fool,  as  well  as  enemy,  if  you 
tempt  me  to  more  thinking  with  the  sound  of  your  voice." 
Again  his  gray  head  sank,  and  he  was  lost  in  his  own 
dark  thoughts. 


278  SACEIFICE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

"  I  shall  go  for  no  such  covert  threats  as  those,  Geoffrey 
Dapple,"  returned  the  other,  quietly  withdrawing  his 
hand  from  the  stooping  shoulder  and  resting  it  upon  the 
mantel-shelf  above.  "  I  must  talk  to  you  of  some  things 
to-night,  and  you  must  hear  me.  Unscrupulous  enemy 
as  you  call  and  think  me,  I  am  made  unhappy — wretched 
— by  the  daily,  the  hourly  sight  of  your  insane  self-tor- 
ment. The  few  months  of  my  life  here  have  been  months 
of  repentance,  and  attempted  atonement,  for  my  first  night 
in  this  room.  I  should  have  left  you  forever  after  the 
first  week,  but  for  what  I  knew  would  be  your  frenzied 
interpretation  of  such  departure  into  a  preliminary  of 
your  final  disgrace  and  ruin.  If  I  worked  upon  a  morbid 
delusion  of  yours  to  get  here — and  I  confess  it,  as  I  have 
before,  with  contrite  shame — you,  in  your  persistent  mis- 
judgment  of  me  as  a  cold-blooded  villain,  where  I 
was  only  the  rogue  of  temporary  circumstances,  have 
forced  me  to  remain.  Ask  your  own  child — your  true- 
hearted,  devoted  daughter, — if  this  is  so,  and  she  will  tell 
you—" 

" That  her  Father's  guilt  has  brought  her,  too,  to 

the  feet  of  a  villain,  and  damns  her  to  his  arms !"  screamed 
the  Toyman,  with  maniac  fury.  "Wretch  !  Don't  name 
her  again,  or  I  shall — I  shall — do  worse  than  I  have ; 
worse  than  I  have  !" 

Canary  stared  down  at  his  panting,  quivering  figure 
with  mingled  surprise  and  compassion  ;  but  responded  in 
the  same  quiet,  intensely  earnest  way  as  before. 

"Diseased  brain  never  conceived  madder  fancy  than 
that.  Let  it  be  answered  by  what  I  am  about  to  say. 
Mr.  Dapple,  I  have  wronged  you  in  but  one  matter, — 
only  one.  God  knows  that  I  have  profited  nothing  by  it. 
I  have  toiled  for  you  as  none  but  a  friend  could  have 


SACRIFICE    OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL.  270 

toiled,  and  have  patiently  borne  more  than  the  full  pen- 
alty of  my  first  offence.  I  have  even  borne  a  blow  from 
you.  What  have  I  gained?  I  am  as  poor  as  when  I 
came.  If  you  have  really  believed  me  guilty  of  seeking 
to  rob  you  of  your  child,  what  more  can  I  offer  in  my 
own  defence  than  the  announcement  that,  at  the  close  of 
this  year — only  six  days  hence — I  shall  leave  you  and 
yours  to  forget  me  forever  ?" 

Up  rose  Geoffrey  Dapple  to  his  feet,  as  in  a  new  fren- 
zy, and  clutched  the  back  of  his  chair  an  instant  as  if 
willing  to  strike  the  other  down  with  it ;  but  the  steady, 
controlling  eyes  of  Canary  held  him  motionless  until  the 
fit  was  over,  and  then  he  answered  like  one  wearied  with 
a  run. 

"  I  followed  you  and  her  in  the  street.  I  saw  you  hold- 
ing her  hand.     I  am  sold  to  you  by  her.     I  know  all/' 

u  What  under  heaven  can  I  say,"  asked  Doctor  Canary, 
in  distress,  "  to  relieve  you  of  your  astounding  misconcep- 
tion ?  Your  good  daughter  loves  and  is  beloved  by  Mr. 
Aster.  I  have  sought  her  only  as  her  elder  friend  and 
your  friend.     You  wrong  her  cruelly." 

"  Have  you  taken  counsel  with  her  rich  friends,  and 
bargained  with  the  lover  you  supplant  to  clear  him  of  a 
shame  ?"  asked  the  Toyman,  incoherently,  thrusting  for- 
ward his  haggard  face  with  a  bad,  cunning,  taunting  leer 
twitching  in  its  every  line,  and  speaking  in  a  harsh,  grat- 
ing voice.  "Is  his  vindication  to  have  the  credit  of 
dragging  me  before  the  law,  and  making  me  tell  why  I 
dared  not  give  up  that  watch  ?  ISTo  !  It  will  not  be  your 
doing,  but  his.  You  are  my  Friend,  and  my  daughter's 
Friend !  You  do  not  denounce  me !  You  do  not  call 
the  witness  to  tell  how  she  came  by  Lydia  Dapple's 
watch,  and  what  the  dying  woman  in  the  hospital  told 


280  SACRIFICE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

her  of  the  husband  who  never  came  to  sit  by  her  dying 
bed  I" 

"  This  is  raving !"  exclaimed  Canary,  aghast.  "  All 
that  you  are  saying  is  incomprehensible  to  me !" 

"  Raving,  you  say  ?"  retorted  Geoffrey,  glaring  at  him 
with  implacable  malignity.  "  Was  the  rich  Mr.  Lardner 
raving,  when  he  sent  for  me  to  go  to  his  place  and  be 
questioned,  and  told  that  I  must  go  into  a'  court-room, 
and  told  that  the  woman  would  be  there  ?  Was  he  rav- 
ing when  he  told  me  that  the  first  clue,  as  he  called  it, 
came  from  my  own  daughter  V' 

"  I  have  never  breathed  a  word  concerning  that  watch 
to  any  living  soul  who  could  harm  you,"  answered  Cana- 
ry. "  I  know  nothing  of  Mr.  Lardner,  or  of  Mr.  Aster, 
beyond  the  name  of  the  latter." 

"  Enough  from  you !"  said  the  Toyman,  fiercely. 
Then,  after  a  long  downward  look  at  the  clock-work  still 
in  his  hand  ;  as  it  had  been  every  moment  that  night ; 
his  face  turned  grimly  rigid  and  he  spoke  again  in  a  voice 
just  above  a  whisper  :  "  You  said  that  to-night  was  the 
time  to  forgive  an  enemy." 

u  I  said  it  in  the  kindest,  most  honest  spirit,  Mr.  Dap- 
ple." 

"Do  you  see  this?"  asked  Geoffrey,  in  the  same  re- 
pressed, intense  tone,  holding  up  the  futile  clock-work. 
"  Do  you  see  this  work  of  years,  and  years  ?  When  you 
first  entered  this  room,  and  lifted  that  woman's  head 
from  the  floor,  this  work  was  nearer  an  end  than  it  is 
now;  and  I've  toiled  at  it  ever  since.  When  this  is 
finished,  Canary,  I'll  forgive  my  enemy." 

'*  If  it  must  be,  I  can  wait." 

"  Aye,  when  it  is  finished :  when  the  Doll  Walks," 
continued  Geoffrey,  holding  it  out  at  arm's  length,  and 


DOCTOR   CANARY'S    DREAM.*  281 

keeping  his  fierce  eyes  fixed  burningly  upon  the  other's 
face.  "  I  hate  you  now,  as  living  creature  never  hated 
another  before :  but  when  the  Doll  Walks,  when  this 
work  is  finished,  I'll  forgive  you  !" 

"With  the  last  phrase  his  voice  arose  again  to  shrill 
emphasis,  and,  with  a  sudden,  furious  motion,  he  dashed 
the  clock-work  to  the  floor,  breaking  it  into  fifty  pieces ! 

"  It  shall  never  be  finished  !"  he  cried,  and  laughed 
hoarsely  in  his  throat  as  he  pointed  downward. 

The  man  thus  devoted  to  eternal  hatred  recoiled, 
shocked  and  pallid,  from  the  exulting  and  awful  figure 
of  his  enemy ;  nor  uttered  another  word.  Reaching  the 
door,  he  threw  one  last  glance  at  the  demented  Toyman ; 
then  left  him  still  laughing  like  a  satyr  and  pointing  to 
the  fragments  of  the  Walking  Doll  at  his  feet. 


XXXIII. 


DOCTOR    CANARY'S   DREAM. 


LEFT  him,  and  went  dejectedly  up  to  his  poor  room, 
where  a  fire  still  smouldered  in  a  little  grate,  and 
the  Christmas  moonlight  fell  in  ghostly  shafts  through 
the  two  bleared  window-casements. 

Still  shuddering,  and  fancying  that  the  hoarse  laugh 
yet  sounded  from  the  accursed  room  below,  he  neither 
lighted  a  lamp,  nor  thought  of  bed ;  but,  stealthily  draw- 
ing a  ricketty  chair  to  the  side  of  the  grate,  seated  him- 
self there,  and  strove  to  recover  his  composure. 

What  unparalleled  and  irreparable  iniquity  had  there 


282  doctor  canary's  dream. 

been  in  his  offence  to  bring  such  ending  as  this  ?  Made 
unscrupulous  for  a  time  by  the  solitary  choice  between 
starving  and  acting  the  mountebank,  he  like,  ten  thousand 
other  men,  had  preferred  guilt  to  shame,  and  practiced 
upon  a  diseased  conscience  to  help  himself  to  a  living. 
There  was  guilt  in  that,  certainly,  and  something  das- 
tardly, too  :  yet,  having  once  made  himself  known  to  his 
victim,  and  taken  the  first  advantage,  he  had  repented 
sincerely  almost  in  a  day,  and  striven  earnestly  through 
every  day  since  to  repair  the  evil  he  had  done.  His 
offence  had  been  unpremeditated; — all  in  a  moment, 
from  the  victim's  own  infatuation,  he  had  received  the 
temptation  and  been  induced  to  follow  its  leading ; — and 
why  should  a  mercenary  folly,  or  even  a  crime,  so  precipi- 
tated, subject  him  to  such  penalty  ?  Once  committed  to 
the  wrong  path  by  a  first  step,  he  had  not- dared  to  leave 
it  lest  the  wrong  he  had  done  should  bear  worse  fruit. 
But  he  had  made  all  the  atonement  he  could  ;  and  now, 
when  at  last  he  would  finally  leave  this  maniac  forever, 
his  expiation  was  crowned  with  a  Curse ! 

Staring  moodily,  hopelessly,  from  his  dark  corner  into 
the  fire,  as  he  silently  reasoned  thus,  Doctor  Canary  went 
back  still  further  into  his  own  life,  and  sighed  to  think 
what  a  bitter  failure  it  had  been.  There  was  he,  as  a 
boy,  left  by  the  early  death  of  both  parents  to  the  guard- 
ianship of  an  uncle,  who,  although  kind  enough,  and 
sufficiently  attentive  to  the  general  duties  of  a  guardian, 
had  left  his  unbalanced  character  to  take  what  chance- 
shape  it  would  in  boarding-school  and  at  college.  There 
wTas  he,  as  a  young  man,  with  a  goodly  paternal  legacy 
at  his  command,  studying  medicine  and  leading  such  a 
wild  life  as  a  fatherless  student  with  plenty  of  money  was 
sure  to  lead.     There  was  he,  at  twenty-one,  disowned  by 


DOCTOR   CANARY'S   DREAM.  283 

his  guardian  for  his  venial  follies,  and  eloping  from  a 
fashionable  watering-place  with  a  penniless  beauty  taken 
there  for  a  much  richer  bargain.  There  was  he,  in  an- 
other year,  risking  his  all  in  a  wild  speculation,  and 
losing  it. — Then  the  effort  to  practice  a  profession  but 
half  studied ;  and  the  descent  by  that  to  poverty ;  and 
the  home-love  turned  first  to  indifference  and  then  to 
fierce  reproach  by  adversity ;  and  the  resort  to  the  weak 
man's  strongest  tempter  in  trouble ;  and  the  fiercer  re- 
proaches; and  the 

Impatiently  raising  his  head  from  his  hand,  in  the  im- 
pulse to  shake  off  these  miserable  memories  by  a  physical 
effort,  Doctor  Canary  chanced  to  cast  his  eye  across  the 
intervening  moonlight  to  the  unlatched  door  of  his  room, 
and  believed  that  he  saw  it  move.  Sitting  motionless,  as 
the  fancy  had  caught  him,  he  stared  more  intently  thither, 
and  was  sure  that  the  shadow  on  the  panels  had  not 
deceived  him.  The  door  was  opening ;  slowly, — slowly; 
without  a  creak  or  a  jar.  Like  the  observer,  it  was  in 
shadow,  being  within  the  angle  of  darkness  between 
the  window  and  itself,  yet  the  keen  eyes  upon  it  saw  the 
edge  gradually  moving  toward  him  ;  until  a  dim  figure, 
crouching  near  the  ground,  and  looking  like  some  lumber- 
ing animal,  at  first  glance,  was  in  the  room.  The  thfng, — 
whatever  it  was, — stopped  where  it  had  entered,  and 
remained  perfectly  stationary  for  several  moments ; — for 
so  long,  and  so  near  the  floor  in  its  crouch,  that  it  ap- 
peared to  blend  with  the  darkness  around  it  there.  A 
moment  it  was  a  blank ;  and  then  it  was  a  dog-like  out- 
line again  ;  and  then  it  moved  once  more.  Around  the 
foot  of  the  bedstead  it  came,  seeming  to  rise  higher  at 
every  motion  :  slowly, — slowly ;  not  a  board  of  the  floor 
creaking  under  it.     In  another  instant  it  must  catch  the 


284  doctor  canary's  dream. 

moonlight  on  some  portion  of  its  form,  as  it  goes  along 
the  side  of  the  bed ;  but  now  it  pauses  again,  and  lifts 
itself  still  higher,  and  its  breathing  can  be  heard.  Some- 
thing moves  slowly  out  within  the  line  of  light. 

A  paw  ? 

A  foot ! 

Swift  and  noiseless  as  a  mouser,  Canary  was  upon  him 
from  behind,  and  dragged  him  out  into  the  full  ghostly 
radiance  by  the  throat.  An  opened  razor  fell  shining 
and  clanging  to  the  ground,  and  the  wretched  Toyman 
stood  gaunt  and  rigid  as  a  ghost  in  the  clutch  of  a 
brother-spectre. 

"  Madman !"  whispered  the  captor,  slowly  relaxing 
his  hold.     "  What  would  you  do  ?" 

His  eyes  fixed  and  glassy,  his  grey  hair  hanging  over 
his  brow  in  wild  dishevel ment,  and  his  face  ghastly  as 
death  itself,  the  old  man  remained  motionless  on  the  spot 
to  which  he  had  been  dragged,  and  uttered  no  sound. 

u  Madman  !"  whispered  Canary  again.  "  Was  this  the 
meaning  of  all  your  threats  ?  Would  you  avenge  the 
Walking  Doll  this  time  with  a  real  murder?" 

JSTow,  Geoffrey  Dapple  cowered  in  the  cold  moonlight, 
and  moved  his  lips,  and  rolled  his  eyes,  but  still  made  no 
replyt 

"  Go  down  to  your  bed,"  said  Canary,  pointing  to  the 
door,  "  and  never  seek  again  to  trouble  other  men  in 
theirs.  I  said  to-night  that  Christmas  was  the  time  to  for- 
give an  enemy.  I  forgive  you  this  freely.  It  shall  be 
nothing  to  me  but  a  dream.     Go." 

Still  cowering,  the  apparation  half  upraised  its  claw- 
like hands,  made  a  choking,  inarticulate  sound  with  its 
mouth  ;  and  then,  cringing  away  toward  the  wall  in 
shadow,  passed  out  of  the  room. 


MAD    AT   LAST.  285 

Canary  softly  bolted  the  door,  and  sank  down  npon  his 
bedside.  "  An  awful  dream  !"  muttered  he,  "  an  awful 
dream.  Merciful  Providence  !  he  would  have  killed  me 
in  my  sleep  I" 


XXXIV. 

MAD     AT     LAST. 

THOUGH  the  gas  was  turned  low  in  the  criminal  re- 
ception-parlor of  Mr.  Justice  O'Blackstone's  Station 
House,  a  large  red-hot  stove  gave  the  light  most  welcome 
at  such  a  cold  Two  O'clock  A.M.  as  that  of  Christmas, 
and  the  police  Captain,  Sergeant,  and  Roundsman,  loll- 
ing in  arm-chairs  about  the  glowing  cylinder,  found  it 
most  congenial  to  their  rather  dreamy  social  mood. 

"  You  say  you  heard  the  chimes  at  Trinity,  Pilkins?" 
said  the  Captain  to  the  Sergeant,  with  a  yawn  and  a 
stretch. 

"  I  heard  a  few  arias,"  returned  the  Sergeant,  who  had 
once  belonged  to  a  glee-club,  and  greatly  prided  himself 
on  his  h'ne  critical  powers  in  music.  "  The  performer 
chucked  a  good  deal  of  ability  into  i  Watchman  tell  us 
of  the  night ' ;  but  there  wasn't  that  breadth  of  expression 
in  it  which  I  should  like." 

"  I  heard  him  doing  Vever  Lammeriker  once,"  put  in 
the  Roundsman,  "  and  I  must  say  that  I  could  do  it  bet- 
ter myself  with  a  comb  and  a  piece  of  paper." 

"  Probably  you  think  so,  Jinkins,"  answered  the  Ser- 
geant, mildly  scornful ;  "  and  I  dare  say  your  old  woman 
thinks  so  ;  but  that  don't  make  it  so.     You  take  a  chime 


286  MAD   AT   LAST. 

of  bells,  and  put  'em  in  a  steeple,  and  they  don't  equal  a 
violin  for  delicacy  of  expression  if  you're  going  to  play 
the  i  Carnival  of  Yenice  ' ;  but  for  a  shy  at  '  Home,  Sweet 
Home,'  or  a  turn-up  with  the  '  Blue-bells  of  Scotland,' 
they're  equal  to  the  accordeon.  You  take  a  chime  of 
bells  and  try  to  come  any  fancy  flourishes  on  'em,  and 
then  you  aint  there ;  but  for  simple  themes,  like  a  !Nay- 
tional  Hymn,  for  instance,  they're  agreeable  to  the  me- 
lodious ear.  I  should  think,"  added  the  Sergeant,  medi- 
tatively, "  that  they  would  do  i  Old  Bob  Ridley '  delicious." 

"  Give  me  a  pianner,"  said  the  Roundsman,  gruffly. 

"  If  the  leading  citizens  of  your  "Ward  want  to  subscribe 
for  a  piano  for  you,  Jinkins,"  observed  the  Sergeant,  with 
covert  sarcasm,  "  I  dare  say  you  could  learn  to  play  on  it 
with  one  finger  after  seven  or  eight  years'  practice  :  but 
I  don't  exactly  see  what  call  there  is  for  a  choice  between 
a  chime  of  bells  and  a  piano.  I,  myself,  should  prefer  a 
chimney  to  a  steeple  for  the  top  of  my  house :  but  if  one 
of  our  leading  builders  should  remark  to  me  upon  the 
architecture  of  Trinity  steeple,  I  don't  think  I  should  say 
'  Give  me  a  Chimney.'     You  take  a  chime  of  bells " 

"I  would'nt  take  'em,  on  no  account,'  exclaimed  the 
Roundsman,  who  was  highly  offended.  "  "Where  could 
I  put  'em  ?" 

"  Hallo !"  cried  the  Captain,  rousing  from  a  doze, 
" Who's  this?" 

Some  one  had  walked  in  from  the  street,  and  when  the 
Roundsman  turned  the  nearest  gaslight  higher,  it  was 
found  to  be  a  forlorn  and  hatless  old  man,  grey  haired, 
shabbily  dressed,  and  in  his  "  stocking-feet."  These  last 
were  wet  and  disfigured  with  the  foul  snow  of  the  streets ; 
the  back  of  the  aged  wanderer's  coat  looked  as  though  he 
had  been  down  in  the  same  defiled  purity  more  than  once ; 


MAD    AT   LAST.  287 

and,  at  first  glance,  the  whole  figure  suggested  the  hard- 
est experience  of  the  hardest  weather. 

"  Well,  old  man,  what's  up  now  ?  After  a  night's  lodg- 
ings ?"     Asked  the  Sergeant. 

Looking  from  one  to  the  other  of  the  officers,  and  from 
them  to  the  various  official  furnishings  of  the  room,  the 
apparent  vagrant  gave  no  sign  of  understanding  the  ques- 
tion. Despite  his  wild  look  and  wandering  manner,  how- 
ever, the  keen-eyed  Captain  decided  at  once  that  he  was 
not  intoxicated,  and  humanely  asked  him  to  come  near 
the  fire. 

"  Fire !"  ejaculated  he,  in  a  strong,  sharp  voice. 
"  Why  I'm  hotter  now  than  a  hundred  stoves.  I've  got  a 
red-hot  stove  in  my  head,  with  flues  down  my  arms.  I 
could  throw  off  heat,  Sir,  with  my  hands,  to  warm  a 
town !" 

"  He's  in  a  raging  fever,  Captain,"  whispered  the  Ser- 
geant, who  sat  nearest  the  door  and  had  been  e}7eing  the 
old  man  more  closely  than  the  rest.  "  I  thought  he  was 
drunk  at  first ;  but  I  see  now  that  the  flush  on  him  is 
fever." 

"  Where  do  you  hail  from  ?"  asked  the  Captain. 

"  I'll  not  answer  that  until  the  Judge  asks  me,  and  I'll 
not  give  my  name  nntil  the  Judge  asks  me,"  returned 
the  unfortunate,  with  inconsequent  violence  of  manner. 
"  I've  come  to  give  myself  up." 

The  officials  exchanged  glances  at  this,  and,  at  a  private 
signal  from  the  Sergeant,  the  Roundsman  arose  lazily  from 
his  chair,  as  though  tired  of  sitting,  and  moved  carelessly 
toward  the  side  of  the  old  man. 

"You'd  better  keep  quiet,  and  let  me  take  you  home," 
he  said,  in  a  soothing,  friendly  way. 

"  I  tell  you,"  exclaimed  the  old  man,  still  addressing 


288  THE    STEPBROTHERS. 

the  Captain,  arid  rolling  his  dilated  eyes  wildly,  "  that  I've 
come  to  give  myself  up  !  I  charge  yon,  in  the  name  of 
the  law,  to  arrest  me." 

"  What  for  ?" 

<*Murder." 

He  had  scarcely  uttered  the  word  when,  with  a  wild  cry 
and  the  leap  of  an  infuriated  animal,  he  flew  at  the  throat 
of  the  Eoundsman  and  bore  him  crashing  to  the  floor. 
"  You  wasn't  on  the  bed  ;  but  I  can  throttle  you  here  !" 
he  yelled.  "  I  hate  you !  I  hate  you !  and  I'll  kill  you 
for  robbing  me  of  my  child." 

Instantly  the  Captain  and  the  Sergeant  threw  them- 
selves upon  the  madman,  and  dragged  him  from  the 
throat  of  the  prostrate  man,  who  was  already  purple  in 
the  face.  Glowing  with  a  fever  which  made  his  hot 
face  and  hands  seem  luridly  transparent ;  his  eyes  glaring 
and  rolling,  and  his  teeth  grinding  together  ;  he  fought  all 
three  of  them  until  they  had  tripped  and  thrown  him,  and 
even  then  howled  and  tried  to  bite  like  some  wild  beast. 


XXXV. 


THE    STEPBROTHERS. 


MISFOETUKE,  having  once  sighted  a  Fine  Nature 
of  the  masculine  gender,  goes  for  it  with  the  per- 
tinacity of  any  other  old  maid  running  down  the  hapless 
callow  youth  who  has  once  been  scarlet-rash  enough  to 
squeeze  her  hand  after  champagne.  Shrewdly  noting  that 
F.  IS".  Esq.,  is  generally  too  superior  to  this  sordid  world 


THE    STEPBROTHERS.  289 

to  possess  any  such,  vulgar  quality  as  energy ;  quickly  dis- 
covering that,  in  his  chronic  indisposition  to  make  the 
exertion  requisite  for  any  profitable  pursuit  of  his  own,  he 
shows  a  certain  loftily  gloomy  pride  at  times  in  proclaim- 
ing her  pursuit  of  him,  the  old  girl  makes  the  most  of 
her  negative  encouragement,  and  has  him  committed  be- 
fore he  can  summon  life  enough  to  get  out  of  her  way. 

Jack  Aster's  other  name  was  Fine  Nature,  and  if  the 
readers  of  this,  his  veracious  biography,  have  not  seen 
how  logically  such  misanthropical  flirtation  with  Misfor- 
tune as  his  must  surely  lead  to  serious  relations  between 
the  two,  those  readers  little  realize  how  unspeakably 
averse  a  Fine  Nature  usually  is  to  anything  so  energetic 
as  an  effort  to  withdraw  from  the  incipient  disaster  in- 
to which  it  has  once  maundered,  nor  how  more  than  will- 
ing Misfortune  is  to  finally  receive  the  languid  Hamlet  to 
her  bony  arms. 

Lamentably  embraced  thus — and  very  earnestly  believ- 
ing, of  course,  that  it  was  all  somebody-else's  fault, — Mr. 
Aster  presently  discerned,  through  his  bone  eyeglasses, 
that  the  notorious  disinclination  of  his  Platonic  bride  to 
"  come  singly  "  was  to  have  no  exception  in  his  case.  Sev- 
eral crushing  Sisters-in-law  trailed  in  to  impose  upon  him, 
and  she  whose  malignity  he  recognized  in  the  sickness  of 
his  adopted  son,  Orlonzo,  was  not  the  least  severe. 

Christmas  morning  found  the  persecuted  drayman  just 
where  Christmas  Eve  had  left  him — seated,  worn  and  anx- 
ious, beside  his  own  bed,  whereon  lay  the  sick  boy.  There, 
after  fairly  driving  Mrs.  Haggle  to  her  widowed  couch, 
he  had  watched  and  attended  all  through  the  weary  night ; 
giving  the  restless  sufferer  his  medicine,  cooling  his  hot 
forehead  with  wet  towels,  and  putting  more  coal  into  the 
little  stove  than  that  landlady' s-friend  could  bear  without 
13 


290  THE   STEPBROTHERS. 

constantly  blushing  at  his  extravagance.  The  boy  had 
scarlet-fever,  and  often  cried  deliriously  for  his  own  father. 
"  Why  don't  you  come  when  the  Gen'ral  tells  you,  you 
old  bummer?"  was  his  cry  and  moan  again  and  -again; 
and  the  deeply  affected  Aster  had  finally  determined  that 
nature's  imperious  entreaty  should  no  longer  be  denied. 

Forgetting  once  more  her  assumed  sex,  and  neglecting 
to  remember,  even,  that  woman's  right  to  vote  and  carry 
canes  still  languishes  in  Congress,  the  childless  Mrs.  Hag- 
gle was  gentle  as  a  mother  with  both  of  her  boarders,  in 
this  calamity,  and  did  all  that  a  renegade  Sorosister  could 
to  vindicate  that  benignant  royalty  of  the  suffering  which 
God  has  made  feminine. 

"  There  is  a  young  man  in  spectacles  wanting  to  see 
you  in  the  parlor,"  said  she,  entering  the  sick-room  an 
hour  before  noon,  and  encountering  Aster,  all  equipped 
in  cloak  and  sombrero,  within  a  few  paces  of  the  door, — 
"  But  where  in  the  world  are  you  going  to  ?" 

.  "  As  I  said  to  you  when  you  took  down  the  breakfast- 
things,"  answered  he,  "  I  must  go  and  hunt-up  the  poor 
lad's  mockery  of  a  father.  He's  asleep,  still,  you  see,  but 
every  time  he  turns,  the  word  '  bummer '  reaches  my  ears. 
Nature,  Mrs.  Haggle, — Nature  is  stronger  than  circum- 
stance, and  we  must  yield  to  her  call. — But  who  is  this 
down  stairs?" 

"I  didn't  ask  his  name,  Aster.  I  was  so  provoked  at 
his  insisting  upon  seeing  you  that  I  didn't  care  to  know 
his  name." 

"Some  new  lunatic,  I  suppose,  to  ask  who  I  stole  a 
three-story  brick  house  from,  last,"  growled  the  drayman, 
under  his  breath.  "  Very  well,  Madam.  If  you'll  remain 
here  for  a  short  time,  I'll  go  down." 

Descending  to  the  parlor  in  his  most  tragic  manner,  and 


THE   STEPBROTHERS.  201 

entering  therein  without  removing  his  thunder-storm  of 
a  hat,  Mr.  Aster  beheld  advancing  toward  him  a  very 
medical-looking  young  man  not  entirely  strange  to  his 
memory. 

"  Brother  John,"  said  Theodore  Danforth,  extending  a 
hand  in  some  embarrassment,  "  I'm  afraid  you're  not  very 
glad  to  see  me  ?" 

Exuberant  love  of  kindred  certainly  was  not  the  strong 
characterizing  expression  of  the  drayman  face  divine 
at  that  ,  moment ;  though  an  extreme  charity  might 
have  attributed  the  apparent  failure  to  see  the  out- 
stretched hand  to  some  casual  defect  in  the  bone  eye- 
glasses. 

"  There  are  a  few  objects  in  art  and  nature,"  responded 
Aster,  "  which  I  might,  possibly,  derive  a  shade  more 
ecstacy  from  contemplating.  The  Apollo  Belvidere,  for 
instance;  Church's  Niagara;  or  the  foul  fiend."  Here 
he  did  catch  sight  of  the  hand,  as  it  was  drawing  slowly 
back,  and,  inspired  by  second-thought,  carelessly  hung  his 
hat  upon  it.  "  You  might  place  that  on  the  table,"  said 
he,  explainingly. 

Though  slightly  astonished  at  this  commission,  Danforth 
fulfilled  it  with  perfect  gravity,  and  returned  to  the 
charge : — 

u  I  suppose  I  should  scarcely  have  expected  you  to  re-, 
ceive  me  in  any  friendlier  manner,  Mr.  Aster;  but  my 
motive  in  coming  forbids  me  to  take  offence  at  that.  I 
regretted  to  hear,  from  the  person  letting  me  in,  that  you 
had  sickness  in  your  room,  and  should  not  have  persisted 
in  seeing  you  on  any  lighter  account  than  that  upon  which 
I  have  remained.  Will  you  favor  me  with  a  few  mo- 
ments' conversation  ?" 

After  studying  his  look  a  moment,  and  finding  some- 


292  THE    STEPBROTHERS. 

thing  therein  to  give  the  end  of  his  own  nose  a  percepti- 
ble upward  tendency,  Mr.  Aster  waved  his  visitor  to  the 
nearest  chair,  and,  seating  himself  upon  another  immedi- 
ately before  it,  began  rolling  back  his  right  cuff  in  a  se- 
verely methodical  manner.  "  Take  hold,"  said  he,  thrust- 
ing forward  the  bared  wrist. 

Fancying  that  this  must  mean  some  mystical  manner 
of  shaking  hands,  as  approved  and  practiced  by  whatever 
secret  benevolent  society  claimed  the  impressive  gentle- 
man as  its  ornament  and  life-member,  the  young  phy- 
sician grasped  the  proffered  article  with  modest  diffi- 
dence. 

"  Take  out  your  watch." 

"I  beg  your  pardon — " 

Indeed,  he  dropped  the  wrist  and  drew  his  chair  away 
with  considerable  precipitation,  upon  beholding  Mr.  As- 
ter in  the  act  of  protruding  for  his  inspection  one  of  the 
sharpest  and  longest  tongues  he  had  ever  seen. 

"  Excuse  me !     I  don't  understand — " 

"  What  is  the  matter  with  me  ?"  asked  Mr.  Aster,  in  a 
rasping  voice.  "  How's  my  pulse  \  What  fatal  disease 
does  my  tongue  indicate  ?  How  many  times  an  hour 
ought  I  to  take  a  tcaspoonful  of  aqua  soda  fizzibus,  cum 
sarsaparilla  ?" 

"  Upon  my  word,  John,  I  don't  take,"  returned  Dan- 
forth,  uneasily. 

Folding  his  arms  with  great  care,  and  leaning  far  back 
in  his  chair,  the  caustic  drayman  regarded  his  stepbrother 
with  a  withering  smile  of  contempt. 

"  Am  I  to  understand,"  inquired  he,  "  that  you  came 
here  otherwise  than  as  a  physician  ?  Do  you,  T.  Dan* 
forth,  M.D.,  who  are  now  reveling  on  the  fatted  calf 
stolen  from  me,  presume  to  come  to  the  rightful   heir 


THE    STEPBROTHERS.  293 

amongst  his  husks  upon  any  less  compulsion  than  profes- 
sional necessity  ?  For  the  credit  of  human  nature,  I  de- 
cline to  believe  in  such  impudence." 

"  I  presume  to  come  here,  sir,  because  my  errand  is  one 
quite  honorable  enough  to  defy  all  unjust  aspersions," 
answered  Danforth,  with  fine  spirit.  "  If,  after  the  mod- 
ifying maturity  which  your  judgment  must  have  acquired 
in  these  few  past  years,  you  still  esteem  me  blameable  for 
the  misfortunes  which  have  befallen  you,  I  shall  make  no 
penitential  overtures  for  a  reversal  of  the  confirmed  opin- 
ion. I  did  hope  that,  as  men,  we  might  agree  to  discuss 
calmly  the  causes  of  our  alienation  as  boys.  Wilfully,  I  nev- 
er gave  either  you  or  your  brother  any  personal  offence ;  but 
if  you  are  determined  to  misjudge  me  still,  I  shall  not 
trouble  you  with  a  defence." 

"Have  you  ever  driven  a  dray,  verbose  boy  ?"  asked 
Aster,  pulling  his  moustache  fiercely.  "  Have  you  ever 
lived  on  hash  for  three  hundred  and  fifty-eight  days  in 
the  year,  and  on  chicken's  chest  for  the  other  seven  ? 
Have  you  ever  been  fondly  addressed  as  a  loyal  sailor  and 
a  pickpocket,  alternately,  by  your  fashionable  friends  and 
Sunday  callers  ?  Have  you  ever  sat  up  all  night  with  the 
only  living  thing  that  loved  you  through  thick  and  thin, 
and  raved  to  think  that  you  hadn't  the  means  to  make 
even  its  last  sickness  luxurious  ?  Of  course  you  hav'n't. 
And  why  ?  Verbose  boy  ! — and  why  ?"  he  repeated,  pas- 
sionately. "  Because  you  and  yours  have  walked  into  the 
richness  of  my  Father's  house,  and  crowded  me  and  my 
missing  brother  out  into  the  cold.  I'm  a  Man,  sir;  a 
Man,  by  heavens !  and  I  can't  ask  you  to  lay  your  head 
on  jny  bosom  just  at  present." 

The  verbose  boy  received  this  outburst, — winch  was 
quite  coherent  for  the  speaker, — without  visible  anger. 


294  THE   STEPBEOTHEES. 

In  fact  it  seemed  to  affect  Mm  almost  pathetically,  and 
he  replied  in  a  gentler  manner  than  before. 

"I  admit,  of  course,  that  you  have  lost  much  by  your 
renunciation  of  home,  Brother  John, — if  you'll  allow  me 
to  call  you  so  for  this  occasion, — yet  I  cannot  see  that  I, 
personally,  have  gained  in  proportion.  Let  that  pass, 
though.  Your  Father  and  my  Mother  chose  to  become 
husband  and  wife  without  particularly  consulting  their 
children,  I  believe,  and  whatever  difference  there  is  be- 
tween you  and  me  comes  chiefly  from  the  dislike  of  your 
absent  brother  and  yourself  for — that  marriage." 

Mr.  Aster  nodded  and  frowned. 

"  In  what  I  have  further  to  say,"  resumed  Danforth, 
coloring,  and  speaking  with  hesitancy,  "I  must  ask  to  be 
excused  from  direct  personal  mention  of  one  whom — 
whom — you  have  reason  for — for  considering  inimical  to 
your  interests ;  but  who  is  very  dear  to  me." 

u  I  am  beginning  to  see  something  respectable  in  you, 
Theodore,"  remarked  the  drayman,  softening,  "  and  you 
may  speak  your  piece  in  your  own  way." 

"I  am  obliged  to  you. — Without  stopping  to  debate 
how  far  you  and  your  brother  were  unwise  in  premising 
an  enemy  for  yourselves  from  the  first,  and  leaving  home 
as  before  the  schemes  of  a  rival  in  your  Father's  affections 
at  last,  I  am  here  to  tell  you,  that  I  have  never  approved, 
and  do  sincerely  regret,  the  intervention  between  your 
Father  and  yourself  which  has  prevented  your  reconcilia- 
tion ;  and  that  I  shall  earnestly  do  all  I  can  to  render  it 
of  less  future  effect.  I  have  ferreted  out  your  address, 
and  come  here  to  you  on  this  blessed  day  of  Peace  and 
Good  Will,  to  express  to  you  the  sincere  hope,  that  an- 
other Christmas  may  find  you,  and,  I  pray  God,  your 
absent  brother,  too,  restored  to  your  proper  places  in  your 


TIIE    STEPBROTHERS.  295 

Father's  heart  and  home.  God  joins  Father  and  Child 
no  less  than  Husband  and  Wife ;  and  none,  for  any  pro- 
vocation, should  seek  to  put  them  asunder !" 

"  Theodore,"  said  Mr.  Aster,  thickly ;  his  bone  eye- 
glasses gleaming  with  unwonted  gentleness,  and  his 
Spanish  cloak  less  aggressive  than  usual ;  "  I'm  poorly 
to-day ;  but  Fm  a  Man.  We'll  shake  hands  for  the  sake 
of  Christmas."  And  he  did  shake  the  readily  offered  hand 
in  three  solemn  ups  and  downs. 

"  You  have  very  faithful  friends  in  Mr.  and  Miss  Lard- 
ner,"  continued  the  stepbrother,  rising,  and  again  shaking 
hands,  "and  through  them  you  may  hear,  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  New  Year,  I  hope,  that  their  efforts  in 
your  behalf  have  not  been  all  in  vain." 

"  You're  a  Man,  Sir  !"  murmured  the  drayman. 

And  now  Theodore  Danforth,  looking  unflinchingly  at 
him,  colored  painfully  once  more,  and  spoke  in  a  low, 
rather  tremulous  tone : 

"  One  thing  more,  Brother  John.  I  have  kejrt  it  for 
the  last,  because  after  saying  it,  I  do  not  wish  to  add  an- 
other word.  With  shame,  with  profound  shame,  I  apolo- 
gize to  you  for  the  one  mad  outrage  justifying  all  you  can 
feel  of  resentment — yes,  of  horror  ! — against  the  misguid- 
ed perpetrators.  It  shall  be  fully  atoned  for,  though  I 
gain  malediction  where  I  love  best  in  this  world.  I  am 
ashamed  of  it  with  my  whole  nature,  and  could  hang  my 
head  before  you  when  I  think  of  it. — Don't  speak.  Let 
me  say  this,  and  leave  you  without  another  word  between 
us  :  I  know,  and,  before  the  New  Year, — at  any  cost, — 
your  wrongfully  influenced  Father  shall  know,  that  you 
are  entirely  guiltless  of  having  stolen  that  watch  !" 

"  Hay  ?"  ^ 

The  exclamatory  question  burst  from  the  man's  lips 


296  "  GOOD-BYE,    GENIAL." 

like  all  the  explosive  force  of  his  vitality,  leaving  Lira 
rigid  and  glaring  in  the  middle  of  the  floor  ;  causing  the 
Stepbrother  to  leap  like  a  shot  duelist  in  his  retreat  from 
the  room,  and  sounding  so  sharply  through  the  whole 
house  that  the  alarmed  Mrs.  Haggle  called :  "  What  is 
it  ?"  from  the  sick-room  above. 

After  standing  for  full  three  minutes,  like  a  statue 
cloaked  and  eyeglassed  to  save  it  from  taking  cold,  Mr. 
Aster  mechanically  fished  from  some  inner  pocket  an 
enormous  bull's-eye  watch,  of  silver  made  smooth  to  imi- 
tate tin,  and  eyed  it,  as  it  lay  in  his  palm,  with  some- 
thing like  fear.  "What  was  the  meaning  of  this  life  of 
his  ?  Why  did  his  mind  spin  in  this  manner  %  He  shud- 
dered, put  the  slippery  jewel  back  almost  stealthily  into 
its  frayed  resting  place,  and,  with  endless  hat  drawn  down 
far  over  his  face,  stalked  away  like  a  troubled  ghost  to 
hunt  the  paternal  Goggle. 


XXXYI. 

"good-bye,  gen'kal." 

SOON  after  dark  that  night,  when  the  doctor  called 
in  Dame  Street  on  his  way  home,  for  the  second 
time  that  day,  he  looked  longer  into  the  sick  boy's  throat, 
and  kept  his  fingers  longer  upon  the  fevered  pulse,  than 
he  had  during  any  previous  visit.  Finally  he  shook  his 
head,  looked  very  grave,  said  u  Scarlatina  maligna,"  and 
went  his  way  without  further  explanation. 


"  GOOD-BYE,    GENIAL."  297 

"  Aster,  do  you  know  what  that  means  ?"  whispered 
Mrs.  Haggle. 

In  reply  to  which  the  drayman  lifted  a  very  pale  face 
from  the  shadow  of  his  hand  and  nodded  a  disconsolate 
affirmative. 

"  The  father  will  come  in  the  morning  ?" 

"  The  woman  in  the  house  said  she  would  tell  him  to." 

"  I'm  afraid  it'll  he  too  late.  The  poor  little  thing  is 
sinking  fast.  I  could  tell  that  from  the  doctor's  look  and 
his  not  ordering  any  more  medicine." 

Aster  drew  a  long  sigh  and  bowed  his  face  again. 

All  through  the  night  those  two  sat  beside  the  couch 
of  the  boy,  who  alternately  slept  the  unresting  sleep  of 
weakness,  and  rolled  and  muttered  in  delirium.  Ever 
unconscious  of  the  place  where  he  was  and  the  anxious 
faces  watching  him  in  the  dim  room,  he  dreamed  only  of 
his  infant  years  of  brutal  usage  and  street-life,  and  be- 
wailed the  hardships  of  hunger,  blows,  scanty  rags,  and 
freezing  nights  without  shelter.  JS~ow  he  was  begging  a 
stale  roll  from  a  baker,  and  being  kicked  to  the  door  for 
his  presumption ;  anon  he  was  whimpering  and  cursing 
for  mercy  under  the  fists  of  drunken  father,  or  mother ; 
and  next  he  would  be  blowing  his  fingers,  and  shivering 
like  a  leaf,  and  saying  that  he  never  did  see  such  a  cold 
stoop  as  that  for  a  hunky-boy  to  sleep  under  when  it  was 
a  snowing.  Sometimes  a  policeman  would  be  a  shoving 
of  him  out  of  the  way ;  but  it  was  noticeable  that  he  only 
laughed  over  this  official  propulsion,  as  though  taking  it 
in  very  good  part.  Whatever  may  be  the  infirmities  of 
the  Metropolitan  police,  it  is  certain  that  they  do  not  in- 
clude the  dauntless  fierceness  with  small  boys  which  so 
eminently  illustrated  the  valor  of  the  old-time  Jack-of- 
clubs.  Civilization  has  taken  a  step  forward  here,  at  any 
13* 


298  "good-bye,  gen'ral." 

rate. — In  other  moments  the  lad  would  be  selling  news- 
papers at  the  Jersey  Ferry,  and  criticizing  the  country 
coves  who  was  always  a  wantin'  the  wery  partickler 
paper  a  chap  hadn't  got,  and  was  never  a  wantin'  them 
he  had  got.  And  always  at  the  close  of  each  reminis- 
cence, and  as  he  sank  into  sleep  again,  he  muttered  for 
Daddy,  and  drowsily  wondered  why  the  old  bummer 
didn't  come  when  the  Gen'ral  told  him  ? 

What  think  you  of  this  for  a  child's  life  in  your  opu- 
lent city,  Messieurs  Wall  Street  Money-Kings?  What 
is  your  opinion,  Messieurs  Merchant-princes  of  the 
Avenue  ?  How  are  you  struck  by  it,  my  millionaire 
Churchman  ?  Is  there  not  something  vitally  false  and 
wrong  in  your  pretension  to  human  hearts  and  Christian 
civilization,  when  the  children  of  the  drinking  poor  can 
thus  be  without  respectable  parents,  finished  educations, 
good  wardrobes,  and  courtly  public  treatment,  while  you 
are  making  money,  and  building  palaces,  and  subscribing 
to  ritualism  \  Something  vitally  false  and  wrong,  Gen- 
tlemen ;  as  you  may  yet  learn  to  your  cost,  unless  you 
become  very  sorry  for  what  you  have  done,  and  send 
suitable  donations  in  cash  to  the  address  of  Byron  Cox, 
Esquire. 

Morning  dawned  at  last,  and  slowly  brightened  into 
day,  and  with  the  latter  came  he  whom  the  sick  boy  had, 
as  it  was  supposed,  called  Daddy.  A  low-browed,  slouch- 
ing figure  of  a  man,  with  frowsy  red  hair  like  a  mangy 
fur-cap,  rusty  red  whiskers  like  worn-out  brushes,  and 
such  spades  of  hands  and  clods  of  feet  as  might  have  be- 
longed to  an  honest  ploughman,  if  their  owner  had  not, 
with  the  strange  perversity  of  his  class,  preferred  vice 
and  misery  in  the  slums  of  a  city  to  virtue  and  comfort 
in  the  farmer's  snug  home.     To  judge  from  the  most  fre- 


"good-bye,  gen'ral."  299 

quent  genealogical  phrase  applied  to  him  by  his  most 
intimate  friends,  he  was  a  person  of  immediate  brutal 
extraction ;  and,  as  though  in  keeping  with  this  attribute, 
when  he  entered  the  sick  room  of  his  son,  there  followed 
at  his  heels  a  dingy  white  cur,  whose  tail  and  ears  seemed 
to  have  been  drawn  far  in,  lest  their  possible  abstract 
vivacity  should  detract  from  the  exceeding  gravity  of  his 
broad,  triangular  countenance. 

The  man  had  scarcely  begun  scuffling  toward  the  bed, 
in  obedience  to  a  motion  of  Mrs.  Haggle's  hand,  when 
the  cur  was  there  on  his  hind-legs,  his  soiled  forefeet  rest- 
ing on  the  counterpane,  and  his  nose  touching  the  boy's 
hand.  For  an  hour  past  Orlonzo  had  seemed  to  be  in  a 
stupor — scarcely  breathing — and  the  pallid  drayman  sat 
holding  a  wet  cloth  upon  his  head ;  but  no  sooner  did 
the  cold  nose  touch  him,  than  he  opened  his  eyes,  uttered 
the  nearest  approach  to  a  laugh  that  his  great  weakness 
would  permit,  and  feebly  patted  the  animal's  chunky 
head. 

"Why,  it's  old  Daddy !"  he  said,  faintly  enough,  but 
with  positive  glee,— u  my  .old  Kieyoodle,  Daddy  !" 

Then  it  was  observable  that,  despite  their  barely  per- 
ceptible protrusion,  the  ears  and  tail  were  capable  of  very 
vivacious  expression  indeed ;  for  the  latter  wagged  a 
whole  half  of  the  body  vehemently,  while  the  former 
drew  the  other  half  out  almost  to  the  boy's  shoulder,  in 
their  violent  but  futile  effort  to  come  together. 

Is  this  your  Dadd}T,  my  dear  ?"  asked  Mrs.  Haggle, 
uplifting  her  hands  in  startled,  shocked  surprise ;  while 
Mr.  Aster  mechanically  drew  back  with  the  wet  cloth, 
and  the  worthless  father  stood,  like  some  dismal  rag- 
image  of  sodden  poverty,  at  the  bed's  foot. 

"  He  aint  nobody  else,"  said  the  sick  boy,  making  a 


300  "  GOOD-BYE,    GEN'RAL." 

weak  effort  to  rise  upon  his  elbow,  and  sinking  back 
again. — "  I  can't  get  up  to  look  at  him  ;  my  cocoanut's 
like  it  had  a  balloon  in  the  top  of  it.  Mayn't  the  old 
bummer  get  up  here  a  minute,  Gen'ral  V 

The  drayman,  with  face  of  marble,  was  suddenly  vio- 
lent in  the  start  he  made  to  lift  the  animal ;  but  the 
latter,  as  though  understanding  the  request  from  some 
old  association  of  sounds,  leaped  quickly  to  a  place  close 
beside  the  prone  figure  of  the  boy,  and,  instantaneously 
nestling  up  against  him,  dropped  his  head  on  his  extended 
fore-paws,  and  seemed  to  sleep. 

"Twig  that,  Gen'ral,  and  Missus  Haggle!"  spoke 
Orlonzo,  stealing  an  arm  over  the  creature's  neck. 
"  Him  and  me's  slept  this  way  under  a  stoop  many  a 
night,  when  I  was  a  waitin'  fur  Extrifs  about  the  War. 
I  took  him  when  he  was  a  pup  from  an  old  woman  that 
give  me  a  stamp  to  drownd  him,  and  him  and  me's  licked 
a  crowd  of  dead-beats  many's  the  time  !  He — "  turning 
his  eyes  heavily  toward  his  father — "  tied  Daddy  up  that 
night  you  took  me  out  of  the  street,  Gen'ral ;  'cause  he 
said  I  loafed,  and  didn't  sell  papers  enough,  when  me 
and  Daddy  was  crusin'  together. — I'd  just  as  soon  a  froze 
that  night  as  not." 

"  My  poor  child,"  said  Mr.  Aster,  with  quivering  lip 
and  a  pretence  of  a  cold  in  his  head,  "  I  thought  you 
wanted  your  father." 

"  Don't  you  know  me,  'Lonzo  ?"  asked  the  latter  indi- 
vidual. "  Wasn't  it  kind  of  me  to  bring  that  air  dog, 
that  wouldn't  be  drove  away  'till  you'd  come  back  ?" 

"  You  was  always  a  beat,"  murmured  the  lad,  wearily, 
with  his  discolored  cheek  against  the  dog's.  "  Nobody's 
been  kind  to  me  but  Daddy,  and  the  Gen'ral,  and  Mrs. 
Haggle." 


"  GOOD-BYE,    GENRAL."  301 

"Whereupon  the  landlady's  head  went  suddenly  down 
upon  her  arm  at  the  bedside,  and  Mr.  Aster  frowned  at  a 
bedpost  until  his  bone  eyeglasses  were  crowded  nearly  to 
the  end  of  his  nose. 

"  'Lonzo,"  quavered  the  elder  Goggle,  shuffling  around 
toward  him,  "  I  don't  think  you  ought  to  be  so  hard  on 
me,  my  kid.  I  was  a  doin'  somethin'  for  this  here 
Gen'ral  only  day  before  Christmas.  I  went  and  signed 
a  swore-to  paper,  for  a  cop  named  Stalker,  sayin'  that  I 
stole  the  very  watch  that  he's  been  nabbed  for  takin'. 
I've  got  to  be  off  south  to  keep  out  of  the  stone-jug  this 
very  afternoon." 

"  Ha-a-ay  ?"  groaned  the  drayman,  in  a  broken  voice  ; 
while  even  Mrs  Haggle  stared  through  her  moistened 
fingers. 

"  I  shouldn't  have  spoke  of  it  now,"  said  the  man, 
forlornly;  " only  I  want  my  kid  to  let  up  on  me." 

"What  might  have  been  said  farther  was  prevented  by 
Daddy,  who,  at  that  instant,  lifted  his  head,  with  the 
scarlet  hand  still  upon  it,  and  uttered  a  low  howl. 

Aster  and  Mrs.  Haggle  started  to  their  feet,  botli  at 
the  sound  and  what  they  saw  in  the  sick  boy's  face.  As 
they  did  so,  Orlonzo  opened  his  eyes  again ;  smiled 
brightly  at  the  landlady  and  his  father;  feebly  patted 
Daddy  once  more ;  said  "  Good-bye,  Gen'ral,"  in  a  faint 
voice ;  and  so  passed  out  into  the  streets  of  a  City  where 
are  eternal  Summer  and  a  love  of  the  Highest  for  the 
lowliest. 


302  RETURNED   TO   niS   RELATIVES. 


XXXVII. 

RETURNED   TO    HIS   RELATIVES. 

~Y~\THILE  these   episodes  were  occurring  in    Dame 
V  V     Street,  the  old  wooden  house  in  the  Bowery  had 
witnessed  events  and  changes  no  less  afflictive  of  the 
occupants. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  add,  that,  after  his  Christ- 
mas dream,  Doctor  Canary  made  no  attempt  for  sleep 
that  night ;  but,  upon  recovering  from  the  first  shock  of 
the  murderous  vision,  noiselessly  replenished  his  little 
fire,  and  seated  himself  before  it  to  meditate  upon  the 
suggestions  of  his  immediate  situation.  His  first  impulse 
was  to  steal  quietly  from  the  house  at  once,  and  never 
be  known  to  the  father  and  daughter  again  ;  for  in  the 
idea  of  meeting  the  former  in  the  morning,  after  the 
crisis  of  the  past  few  hours,  there  was  warning  anticipa- 
tion of  such  characteristic  conduct  on  the  Toyman's  part 
as  would  reveal  something  of  the  night's  sinister  mystery 
to  poor  Dollie.  But  this  impulse  temporized  and  died 
out  while  the  thinker  reflected,  that,  upon  discovering 
his  secret  departure,  in  the  morning,  Geoffrey  would 
surely  conclude  that  he  had  gone  to  denounce  him,  and 
might  thereupon  be  driven,  by  the  frenzy  of  despair,  to 
commit  some  desperate  extravagance — possibly  suicide. 
Again  heaping  blame  upon  his  own  head  for  the  disin- 
genuous folly  by  which  he  had  thus  intangled  himself, 
the  Doctor  straightened  in  his  chair,  and,  casting  his 
weary  eyes  upon  a  fresh  flare  in  the  fire  before  him, 
began  considering  what  would  be  his  wisest  manner  of 


RETURNED   TO    HIS    RELATIVES.  303 

greeting  the  would-be-assassin  at  breakfast.  Neither 
could  well  escape  meeting  the  other  there,  as  the  house- 
hold system  was  conducted,  and  the  saner  man's  control 
of  the  other  would  depend  much  upon  his  very  first  ex- 
pression of  countenance  and  phrase. 

It  was  near  morning,  and  Canary  was  yet  silently 
schooling  himself  on  this  last  conclusion  for  the  coming 
test  of  nerve,  when  heavy,  bat  not  noisy,  footsteps 
sounded  to  him  from  the  hall,  and,  turning  his  head,  he 
heard  that  some  one  was  again  at  the  door  of  the  room. 
Rising  in  haste,  he  stept  quickly  forward  to  meet  this 
second  intrusion  summarily,  and  was  struck  with  mingled 
surprise  and  consternation  at  encountering  a  very  differ- 
ent figure  from  that  of  his  first  visitor.  In  short,  the 
dim  light  of  the  hour  enabled  him  to  discern  the  "un- 
mistakable outward  seeming  of  a  tall  policeman,  who, 
upon  observing  him,  as  he  stood  on  the  threshold,  first 
made  a  shadowy  catch  at  the  club  in  his  belt,  and  then 
walked  in. 

"  Oh !  there  is  somebody  up,  then,"  said  the  police- 
man. 

u  Yes.  Speak  low,  or  you'll  have  everybody  up,"  said 
Canary,  with  vague  misgivings.     "  "What's  the  matter  ?" 

"  What  are  you  doing  here  ?"  asked  the  policeman 
peering  into  his  face,  and  quickly  catching  him  by  an 
arm. 

"  I  belong  here." 

"  How  come  the  store-door  below  open  at  this  time  of 
day  ?"  queried  the  public  guardian,  still  holding  him. 

"Open?" 

"  Yes.  Standing  ajar.  I  came  in  through  the  store, 
and  through  the  back-room,  and  on  up  here.  If  this  is 
your  place  you're  mighty  careless  about  locking-up." 


304  RETURNED   TO    HIS   RELATIVES. 

Canary  stood  petrified  for  a  moment  by  a  dozen  vague 
apprehensions.  The  thought  of  a  burglarious  explana- 
tion never  entered  his  head. 

"  I'll  go  down  with  you,"  he  whispered,  at  last.  "We 
shall  find  out  more  there.     Walk  softly,  if  you  please." 

"With  as  little  noise  as  possible  they  descended  to  the 
room  behind  the  store,  where,  upon  hurriedly  lighting  a 
lamp,  the  Doctor  at  once  discovered  that  the  wretched 
master  of  the  place  was  not  there. 

"  Well,"  said  the  officer,  "  what  do  you  make  of  it  ?" 

"  This,"  answered  Canary,  hurriedly  :  "  that  the  pro- 
prietor, Mr.  Dapple,  who  was  sick  arid  delirious  last 
night,  has  escaped  from  the  house,  and  must  be  wandering 
the  streets.  My  name  is  Doctor  Canary.  I  belong  here, 
and  am  apprehensive  of  the  worst  consequences  to  the 
deranged  man.  His  daughter  is  asleep  tip-stairs ;  but  I 
have  been  sitting  up,  in  case  I  should  be  needed  by  the 
invalid." 

"  ~No  idea  where  he'd  be  likely  to  go  ?"  asked  the 
policeman. 

"  Any  where  whither  a  disordered  brain  might  lead  him. 
There  must  be  an  immediate  search." 

a  You'd  better  come  with  me,  then,  and  give  informa- 
tion at  the  Station-house.  He  may  have  been  taken  in 
there." 

"  I  do  hope  so,  officer.  I  hope  nothing  worse  has  hap- 
pened. Couldn't  you  ascertain  and  bring  me  word  ? 
Then  I  could  go  back  with  you.  I'm  puzzled  what  to 
do.  I  think  I  ought  to  remain  here,  as  Mr.  Dapple's 
daughter  might  come  down  while  I  was  absent,  and  be 
frightened  to  death  at  finding  neither  her  father  nor  my- 
self in  the  house." 

"  I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do,"  said  the  other,  after  a  short 


RETURNED   TO    HIS    RELATIVES.  305 

pause  iii  hesitation  :  "  I'll  take  your  word  for  all  this,  and 
report  at  the  Station-house.  If  no  one  comes  from  there 
here  in  an  hour  or  so,  you'd  better  go  yourself,  and  give 
a  close  description  of  the  man." 

This  proposition  seeming  to  cover  all  that  could  be 
clone  with  effect  at  the  moment,  Doctor  Canary  hastily 
assented ;  and,  after  giving  the  friendly  official  some  in- 
formation respecting  the  general  appearance  of  the  Toy- 
man, saw  him  depart  for  the  station. 

When  Dollie  came  down  some  three  hours  later,  to 
prepare  breakfast  as  usual,  the  abrupt  discovery  of  Can- 
ary, pale  and  careworn,  conversing  with  a  policeman  in 
her  father's  room,  made  her  start  back  in  the  doorway 
with  a  hand  pressed  against  her  heart. 

"  What  has  happened  V  was  her  instinctive  ejacula- 
tion. 

Both  men  turned  quickly  about,  and  the  officer,  at  a 
sign  from  the  clerk,  walked  briskly  out  into  the  store. 

"  Miss  Dollie,"  said  Canary,  "  There  is  no  immediate 
cause  for  alarm.  I  was  talking  to  this — in  fact,  the  store- 
door  was  left  open,  or  unlocked,  I  should  say,  last  night, 
and  the  officer  discovered  it." 

"  But  where's  my  Father  ?"  cried  the  girl,  glancing 
affrightedly  about  the  disordered  room. — "  Oh,  Doctor 
Canary  !  what  has  happened  ?" 

"  If  you'll  only  try  to  be  calm " 

"  Where  is  he,  I  ask  you  ?  Something  dreadful  has 
happened,  I  know  by  your  look !"  And  she  looked  as 
though  it  would  be  possible  for  her  to  faint,  after  all. 

"  Miss  Dapple,  please  sit  down  and  hear  what  I  have 
to  say,"  said  Canary,  peremptorily  catching  her  hand  and 
leading  her  to  a  chair.  "  There  !  ISTow  we  can  talk  with 
some  presence  of  mind.     Under  the  influence  of  fever, 


306  RETURNED   TO    HIS   RELATIVES. 

jour  Father  left  the  house  last  night,  and  was  taken  into 
a  Station-house  until " 

"  Oh,  heaven  !"  cried  Dollie,  panting  for  breath. 

"  Now,  my  dear  young  lady  ! — I  tell  you  there's  no 
cause  for  immediate  alarm  ! — he  was  taken  in  at  a  Sta- 
tion-house, I  should  have  said ;  for  he  wandered  thither 
himself ;  and  kept  there  until  word  could  be  brought  to 
us.  The  officer  has  come  for  me,  and  I'm  going  at  once 
to  bring  him  home  in  a  hack." 

With  her  arms  crossed  on  her  knees,  and  her  head 
resting  upon  them,  in  sudden  abandonment  of  despair, 
Dollie  sobbed  hysterically. 

"  I  really  thought  you  had  more  strength  of  mind  than 
this,"  Canary  added,  almost  harshly.  u  I  can  do  nothing 
while  you  give  way  in  this  weak  manner." 

"  Let  me  go  to  him !"  cried  she,  starting  up  convul- 
sively under  the  reproof.  "  You've  done  enough  to  him 
already, — my  poor,  poor  Father  !" 

For  reply,  Canary  seized  her  by  the  shoulders,  and 
firmly,  but  gently,  forced  her  back  into  the  chair. 

"  You  may  say  what  you  please  to  me,  child,  after  I 
have  come  back  with  your  Father.  At  present,  show 
some  of  the  real  good  sense  which  I  know  you  to  possess, 
and  attend  to  my  directions.  While  I  am  gone,  clear 
the  room  of  these  pieces  of  clock-work  on  the  floor,  make 
a  good  fire  in  the  stove,  and  re-make  your  father's  bed 
for  him.  I'm  a  physician,  and  give  you  these  directions 
as  a  physician  only.  Your  Father  has  but  reached  the 
crisis  of  a  disease  which  has  been  coming  upon  him  for 
weeks,  and  has  done  no  more  than  many  a  delirious  man 
has  done  before  him.  May  I  depend  upon  you  to  do  as  I 
have  directed,  or  must  we  waste  more  time  in  talking 
about  it  ?" 


RETURNED   TO   HIS   RELATIVES.  307 

He  thoroughly  understood  her  half-hysterical  condition, 
and  had  adopted  the  tone  and  manner  best  calculated  to 
rouse  her  from  it. 

"  I'll — I'll  obey  you,  Sir,"  she  sobbed,  submissively. 

"  That's  a  brave  girl !  I  knew  you  would. — Now  Mr. 
Officer,  I'm  with  you."  And,  hurrying  to  rejoin  that 
messenger,  he  went  out  with  him  to  look  for  a  hack. 

Spiritlessly,  and  shedding  many  tears,  the  Toyman's 
daughter  at  once  set  about  the  duties  assigned  to  her ; 
realizing  no  more  than  that  she  had  been  told  to  do  so  by 
an  authority  not  to  be  combatted,  and  feeling  too  much 
stunned  by  her  calamity  to  reason  with  herself  concerning 
it.  Though  trembling  in  every  limb  while  picking  the 
many  fragments  of  the  Walking  Doll  from  the  floor,  no  con- 
jecture of  how  they  had  come  there  affected  her  bewildered 
mind ;  nor  did  she  even  remember  that  Canary  had  been 
last  with  her  Father  on  the  preceding  night.  Something 
dreadful  had  befallen  her  unhappy  home  while  she  was 
sleeping,  and  the  day  just  begun  was  to  be  one  of  greater 
misery  than  had  yet  been  theirs.  Such  was  the  extent 
of  her  realizing  consciousness ;  and  all  her  sensations,  as 
she  went  mechanically  through  her  usual  morning  routine, 
were  as  those  of  one  who,  waking  from  pleasant  dreams, 
suddenly  grows  heavily  sick  at  heart  in  the  recollection 
that  some  familiar  human  form  lies  dead  in  the  house. 

As  for  Canary,  upon  securing  a  hack,  he  took  leave  of 
the  officer  and  drove  straight  to  a  house  in  a  cross-street 
not  far  from  Justice  O'Blackstone's  court,  where  lived  the 
celebrated  Alderman  MacFinnigan.  In  his  better  days 
he  had  employed  this  illustrious  man  in  his  stable,  and 
aided  him  to  import  his  mother  and  sister  from  Ireland  ; 
consequently,  he  felt  the  more  bold  to  call  upon  him  for 
help  in  his  own  time  of  need,  and  hesitated  not  to  call 


308  RETURNED   TO    HIS    RELATIVES. 

him,  even  from  his  bed,  for  that  purpose.  To  the  Alder- 
man's credit  be  it  said,  when  he  recognized  the  caller,  and 
had  heard  the  story,  his  first  indignant  haughtiness  of 
demeanor  disappeared;  and  after  informing  Mrs.  Mac- 
Finnigan,  whom  he  had  soundly  beaten  the  evening  be- 
fore, that  he  was  going  to  see  about  one  of  his  friends  that 
was  in  trouble,  he  got  into  the  hack  with  his  old  employer, 
and  accompanied  him  to  the  Station-House. 

There,  muttering  and  moaning  upon  a  narrow  cot  in 
an  off-room,  his  eyes  closed,  his  hands  clenched,  and  his 
whole  appearance  that  of  some  miserable  old  vagrant 
dragged  in  dying  from  the  dirt  of  the  street,  they  found 
poor  Geoffrey  Dapple. 

"  I  have  had  him  placed  in  this  room,  and  rid  of  his 
ropes,  since  you  were  here  first  this  morning,"  said  the 
police-surgeon  in  attendance  to  Doctor  Canary,  as  the 
latter  entered  with  the  Alderman.  "  His  violence  is  all 
over  now,  I  should  say." 

"  I'm  a  thousand  times  obliged  for  your  kindness,  sir," 
returned  the  Canary,  eyeing  the  prostrate  figure  anxious- 
ly.    "  Do  you  still  agree  with  me  as  to  the  cause  of  this  ?" 

"  I  see  no  ground  for  any  difference  yet,"  remarked 
the  surgeon.  u  I  take  it  to  be  a  case  of  extreme  conges- 
tion of  the  brain,  superinduced  by  intense  and — /should 
say — long- continued  febrile  inflammation  of  the  membrane. 
Since  I  bled  him  he  has  quieted  down.  A  narrow  escape, 
though,  from  apoplexy." 

"  Under  the  circumstances,  he  was  not.  responsible  for 
his  words  and  actions  after  he  had  wandered  in  here  last 
night  ?     He  was  in  delirium  ?" 

"  ~No  more  responsible,  morally,  than  a  confirmed  luna- 
tic." 

"You  hear  that,  Alderman  ?"  observed  Canary,  turning 


THE   CUESE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL.  309 

to  Mr.  MacFinnigan.  "  You  wo'n't  object  to  his  return 
to  his  relatives  after  that  '?" 

"Divil  a  bit,"  answered  that  powerful  ruler.  "I'll 
ordther  his  discharge  in  the  shake  of  a  shtick ;  and  I'd  do 
as  much  for  a  frind  of  yours  if  he'd  broken  his  own  broth- 
er's head  in  a  shindy." 

As  a  consequence  of  which  friendliness  of  disposition 
on  the  part  of  the  Alderman,  Geoffrey  Dapple,  wrapped 
in  his  enemy's  own  coat  and  great-coat,  was  presently  car- 
ried out,  still  moaning  and  muttering,  to  the  hack ;  and 
in  that  started  for  his  home,  sustained  by  the  arms  of  a 
policeman,  and  of  the  man  whom  he  had  sworn  to  hate 
and  tried  to  kill. 


XXXVIII. 

THE   CUESE   OF   THE   WALKLNG   DOLL. 

^VTTHILE  there's  life  there's  hope,"  is  a  phrase 
V  V  often  upon  a  man's  lips,  but  rarely  in  his 
heart.  It  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the  numerous  consolatory 
generalities  of  speech  with  which  we,  of  the  more  practi- 
cal sex,  are  accustomed  to  solace  our  neighbors  in  their 
apprehensions,  but  consider  altogether  too  general  to  be 
harbored  for  the  alleviation  of  our  own  particular  dreads. 
With  woman,  however,  it  is  a  real  belief  and  power  when 
all  else  is  incredible  and  impotent.  She,  by  her  beauti- 
ful adaptation  through  nature  for  such  saving  ministra- 
tions to  those*  in  mortal  extremity  as  the  masculine  heart 
and  hand,  be  they  ever  so  gentle,  can  not  eveii  devise,  has 


310  THE   CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

an  instinct  of  hope  which  makes  her  strong,  when  a  man 
turns  weak  with  hopelessness ;  and  while  one  little  vital 
spark  remains  to  be  sheltered  and  breathed  upon  by  a 
ministering  love  ever  incredulous  of  death,  she  cannot 
believe  that  it  will  go  out ;  cannot  yield  the  Hope — strong 
as  her  own  life — that  it  gives  her  to  the  last. 

The  broken,  moaning,  ghastly  wreck  of  a  man  borne 
tenderly  home  to  Dollie,  was  such  a  father  as  a  son  would 
have  received  back  to  no  less  loving  arms  without  a  hope 
to  save ;  but  she,  after  her  despair  had  died  in  the  one 
shriek  she  gave  at  seeing  him  carried  through  the  store 
like  a  dead  man,  looked  up  to  Heaven  in  tearful  gratitude 
when  they  told  her  that  he  yet  breathed,  and  was  his 
faintly  glimmering  life's  best  stay  through  the  indomita- 
ble Hope  that  was  her  love's  belief  in  Herself ! 

O,  Woman  !  Better  in  good  and  worse  in  wrong  than 
we.  Whether  your  rights  below  the  sceptre  are  honored  by 
man  in  his  purest  manhood  at  the  altar,  or  denied  by  him 
in  his  consciousness  of  contagious  impurity  at  the  ballot- 
box  ;  whether  the  proudest  knee  bends  to  you  in  hom- 
age, or  the  basest  foot  spurns  you  in  shame ;  whether  you 
wear  youth's  rosy  wreath  in  love's  first  march  afield,  or 
bend  beneath  the  silver  cross  of  age  in  life's  last  reverie 
beside  the  hearth ;  still  is  it  yours  to  claim  an  empire  old 
as  the  world  when  man  is  piteously  thankful  to  feel  but 
your  royal  hand  upon  his  brow ;  still  is  it  yours  to  hold 
your  deathless  Hope  'twixt  death  and  him,  and  say : 

"Here  is  my  throne:  let  Kings  come  bow  to  it!" 

They  laid  poor  Geoffrey  upon  the  bed  where,  for  three 
long  months  before,  he  had  known  but  little  rest,  and  the 
girl  took  her  place  beside  it,  there  to  watch,  and  minister, 
and  believe  in  his  recovery,  through  many  a  day  and  night. 


THE   CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL.  311 

His  mortal  peril  came  more  from  the  gradual  wearing 
away  of  his  strength  by  the  long  fever  of  mind  and  body 
which  had  preceded  his  paroxysm  of  madness,  than  from 
the  merely  temporary  violence  of  the  latter ;  but  so  weak 
was  he  now,  that,  although  the  crisis  of  his  malady  had 
passed,  Doctor  Canary,  and  the  physician  called  in  by 
him,  were  at  first  fearful  that  he  would  sink  beyond  mor- 
tal help  before  another  day  had  dawned.  With  the  go- 
ing down  of  the  wintry  sun,  however,  his  moanings  and 
mutterings  ceased,  and  he  appeared  to  sleep ;  and  when, 
at  midnight,  he  opened  his  eyes,  faintly  called  his  daugh- 
ter by  name,  and  then  slumbered  again,  there  was  hope, 
even  for  the  men. 

Canary  and  Dollie  watched  together  until  morning  ;  by 
which  time, — the  decrease  in  the  sufferer's  remaining  fe- 
ver not  having  been  accompanied  by  a  proportionate  fail- 
ure of  his  remaining  strength, — it  became  apparent  to 
the  former  that  the  great  danger  was  past ;  and  so  he  told 
his  companion  before  going  out  to  secure  help  for  her  in 
her  domestic  duties.  She  thanked  him  with  a  bow  and  a 
look,  and  when  he  had  left  her,  fell  upon  her  knees  at  the 
bedside. 

Going  right  at  his  object  with  an  irresistible  energy 
which  seemed  to  have  been  born  in  him  only  since  his 
acquaintance  with  Toys,  the  clerk  had  Dollie's  friend, 
Sophia  Skeggs,  and  her  brother,  x\lgernon  Skeggs,  in  the 
store,  to  help,  before  he  had  been  away  an  hour ;  besides 
also  securing  an  Irish  servant-maid  who  actually  did  not 
stipulate  for  stationary  wash-tubs.  These  assistants  gain- 
ed, and  a  late  breakfast  got  under  way  by  the  last-men- 
tioned prodigy,  he  reappeared  in  the  sick-room  to  report 
what  he  had  done,  and  meet  the  physician  again. 

During  that  whole  week,  of  course,  as  New- Year's  Day 


312  THE   CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING    DOLL. 

was  jet  to  come,  the  business  of  the  toy-store  would  be 
very  brisk ;  but,  had  Dollie  been  at  liberty  to  think  of 
anything  beyond  the  room  in  which  she  was,  there  might 
have  been  some  wonder  in  her  mind  at  the  temporary  ad- 
dition of  two  new  clerks.  To  be  sure,  both  were  without 
experience,  and  were  likely  to  be  rather  less  efficient  com- 
bined than  would  one  ordinary  boy  with  some  knowledge 
of  the  business  ;  yet,  in  their  acquisition  two  salaries  were 
imposed  upon  the  establishment,  and  they  at  least  repre- 
sented an  increase  of  fifty  per  cent  over  the  force  which, 
on  all  past  occasions,  had  proved  sufficient.  Doctor 
Canary,  though,  knew  well  what  he  was  about,  and  took 
no  end  of  pains  that  day  to  drill  his  new  recruits  in  the 
manual  of  toys.  This  was  not  a  trifling  labor  ;  for  Miss 
Skeggs,  though  apt  enough  in  acquainting  herself  with 
the  stock  and  its  private  price-marks,  had  a  certain  chill- 
ing and  Best-Society  way  of  snubbing  female  customers, 
which  would  have  done  credit  to  any  one  of  the  feminine 
aristocrats  who  preside  in  the  "  Cloak  Departments  "  of 
the  great  Broadway  drygood-houses  ;  while  Mr.  Algernon, 
although  a  perfect  lamb — not  to  say  sheep — to  any  one 
who  ever  entered  to  ask  where  somewhere  else  was,  could 
not,  for  the  life  of  him,  help  presenting  a  Noah's  Ark 
when  a  Box  of  Blocks  was  asked  for,  or  avoid  mistaking 
the  price-mark  in  cents  for  so  many  dollars.  Thus,  while 
Miss  Sophia  would  be  holding  in  great  contempt,  at  one 
end  of  the  counter,  some  doting  young  mother  who  had 
come  to  buy  a  whole  line  of  amusements  for  her  darling  at 
home,  Mr.  Skeggs,  at  the  other  end,  would  be  trying  to 
sell  a  small  pasteboard  dog  to  an  amazed  country  gentle- 
man who  had  desired  a  drum,  for  Seventy-five  dollars. 
Yet,  before  dark,  the  indefatigable  head-clerk  had  suc- 
ceeded in  reducing  even  these  crudities  to  passable  finish  ; 


THE  CURSE  OF  THE  WALKING  DOLL.        313 

so  earnestly  did  lie  devote  himself  to  the  task.  And 
when  nine  o'clock  came — the  closing-hour  at  that  season — 
and  the  new  clerks  had  gone  home,  and  the  store  was 
shut  for  the  night,  this  same  faithful  drill-sergeant  proved 
how  tired  he  was,  after  it  all,  by  resting,  with  head  on 
crossed  arms,  upon  his  old  poetical  desk,  for  at  least  an 
hour  later. 

Then,  perhaps,  he  was  rested.  At  any  rate,  he  proceed- 
ed immediately  thereafter  to  the  room  where  Dollie  sat  be- 
side the  Toyman's  bed,  as  though  she  had  not  moved  since 
the  night  before,  and  stole  in  so  softly  that  she  did  not 
discover  his  presence  until  he  was  leaning  over  her  charge. 

"  This  painless,  unconscious  rest  is  better  for  him  than 
all  the  medicines,"  he  whispered,  after  listening  a  moment 
to  the  breathing  of  the  sick  man.  "  It  is,  of  course,  the 
sleep  of  extreme  weakness ;  but  the  fact  that  he  has  any 
strength  left  at  all,  after  what  he  has  passed  through,  is 
the  best  evidence  that  he  has  a  constitution  to  bring  him 
to  his  feet  again  in  a  fortnight." 

"  He  always  knows  me  when  he  opens  his  eyes,"  whis- 
pered Dollie  :  "  but  I  don't  think  he  remembers  anyone, 
or  anything,  else." 

"  Why  do  you  think  that  ?" 

"  Because  his  look  is  so  peaceful,  and  like  his  old  self. 
Oh,  Doctor  Canary  !  you  can  form  no  idea  of  how  differ- 
ent he  looked  before  his  trouble." 

"  You  forget  that  I  saw  him  at  the  very  first  moment, 
as  it  were,  of  that  trouble,"  said  Canary,  in  a  voice  so  low 
that  it  was  scarcely  audible. 

"I  don't  wish  to  remember  it,"  answered  Dollie. 

"  I  wish  I  could  forget  it  myself,  Miss  Dapple." 

Silence  reigned  again  in   the  dimly  lighted  room  for 
several  moments  after  this,  the  clerk  standing  in  mute 
14 


314:  THE   CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

contemplation  of  the  unconscious  Toyman,  and  the  daugh- 
ter hanging  watchfully  over  the  pillow.  Finally,  after 
softly  feeling  the  pulse  of  the  invalid,  and  again  listening 
with  inclined  ear  to  his  breathing,  Doctor  Canary  whis- 
pered to  the  girl  once  more. 

u  Miss  Dollie,  I  have  certain  things  to  tell  you  to-night, 
and  do  not  believe  that  you  will  have  better  opportunity 
for  listening  than  now  presents  itself.  If  you  have  enough 
confidence  in  me  to  feel  certain  that  I  would  not  make 
such  a  request  in  such  an  hour  without  the  warrant  of  a 
grave  necessity,  you  will  not,  I  am  sure,  refuse  to  with- 
draw far  enough  from  this  bed  to  prevent  the  likelihood 
of  any  portion  of  what  I  may  say  being  heard  by  your 
Father." 

The  light  from  the  just-burning  lamp  behind  the  stove 
was  not-  sufficient  to  reveal  the  speaker's  features  very 
clearly  to  the  girl,  as  she  looked  up  into  his  face  with 
momentary  surprise ;  but  she  could  discern  enough  evi- 
dence of  grave  entreaty  and  emotion  in  them  to  match 
the  keen  urgency  of  his  manner.  Without  a  word  she 
bent  lower  over  the  pillow  an  instant,  then  carefully 
arose  from  her  chair  and  tacitly  permitted  him  to  place 
another  for  her  almost  immediately  under  the  furled  cur- 
tain of  the  tall  window.  What  was  to  come  now  she 
knew  not ;  but  the  events  of  the  past  three  months  had 
accustomed  her  to  a  kind  of  necessitated  secrecy  with 
Doctor  Canary,  which  involved  an  obligation  to  submit, 
in  some  measure  unprotestingly,  to  his  requests  for  special 
privacy. 

As  she  took  her  new  place  by  the  window,  though  with 
eyes  still  intent  upon  the  sick-bed,  he  leaned  against  a 
side  of  the  casement,  and,  folding  his  arms,  looked  down 
upon  her. 


THE   CURSE   OF   THE    WALKING   DOLL.  315 

"  To  commence,"  he  said,  barely  above  a  whisper ; 
"  your  Father's  reason1,  certainly  ;  and  his  life,  too,  I  think  ; 
have  been  saved  by  what  he  is  now  so  weak  from  in  both 
mind  and  body.  The  congestion  was  an  alternative  of  a 
softening  of  the  brain,  and  in  escaping  the  latter  and  suf- 
fering the  former,  he  may  be  said  to  have  gone  to  death's 
door  in  being  saved  from  worse  than  death.  We  have 
great  reason  to  thank  God  that  he  lies  there,  however 
weak,  upon  that  bed  to-night,  instead  of  being  either  a 
raving  maniac,  or  a  hopeless  imbecile,  in  some  barred 
asylum.  The  alternative  has  been  perilous — very  peril- 
ous to  his  life.  I  was  almost  without  a  hope  for  that 
when  we  laid  him  here  yesterday  morning ;  but  he  has 
passed  the  crisis  in  safety,  aud  needs  only  such  loving 
care  as  yours  to  make  him  well  again.  I  recognize  God's 
forgiveness  and  mercy  to  myself  in  my  being  able  to 
leave  him  thus." 

"  Leave  him  ?"  echoed  the  girl,  withdrawing  her  gaze 
from  the  bed  and  turning  it  upon  him. 

"  Yes.  I  shall  go  away  to-morrow  morning,  never  to 
return  again.  I  brought  misfortune  when  I  came ;  and 
pray  Heaven  that  it  may  all  be  included,  and  lost  to  you 
and  him,  in  the  misfortune  which  will  bow  my  own  head 
in  my  departure." 

Slowly  turning  her  gaze  to  where  her  Father  lay,  again, 
Dollie  uttered  no  comment. 

"  I  have  done  all  that  I  can  to  save  you  from  incon- 
venience through  my  absence,  Miss  Dapple.  Mr.  Skeggs 
and  his  sister  have  learned  enough  of  the  run  of  things 
to-day  to  attend  store  for  you,  and  the  young  lady  has 
promised  me  that  her  mother  shall  come  with  her  in  the 
morning  to  help  and  relieve  you  in  your  charge  here. 
The  servant  girl,  as  I  have  seen  for  myself,  will  do  her 


316  THE  CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

part  of  the  household  work  faithfully.  This  is  all  I  can 
do  to  lighten  the  burden  which  I  have  sinfully  helped  to 
bring  upon  you.  In  leaving  you,  at  once  and  forever,  I 
shall  do  still  more  to  that  end,  and  the  best." 

As  on  a  former  occasion,  the  Toyman's  daughter  held 
out  her  hand  to  him,  and  clasped  his  earnestly. 

"  When  my  Father  is  himself  again,"  she  whispered, 
"  he  will  know  you  better ;  know  you  as  I  do ;  and  for- 
give everything.  He  can  understand  then,  Doctor  Canary, 
what  a  good,  generous  friend  you  have  been  to  both  of  us, 
ever  since  that — that  first  day." 

"  He  may  learn  to  forgive  me  after  I  have  gone,*'  re- 
turned Canary,  with  sorrowful  emphasis ;  "  but  never  while 
I  am  here.  Night  before  last,  after  you  had  gone  up  to 
your  room,  I  made  my  kst  and  fruitless  appeal  to  him. 
I  solemnly  asked  him,  if  only  for  the  sake  of  the  Christ- 
mas just  coming  in,  to  forgive  him  whom  he  thought  to 
be  his  enemy,  but  who  was  really  his  penitent  friend.  I 
told  him  that  he  should  be  rid  for  ever  of  my  presence, 
and  of  all  knowledge  of  me,  at  the  close  of  this  dying 
Year ;  and,  in  reply,  he  dashed  the  Walking  Doll  to 
pieces  at  my  feet, — that  the  remotest  possibility  of  its 
completion  might  be  synonymous  with  the  greatest  pos- 
sibility of  his  ceasing  to  feel  the  deadliest  hatred  for  me ! 
Miss  Dapple,  by  my  one  wrong  act  I  have  wrought  such 
a  picture  of  myself  in  your  Father's  brain,  that  its  color- 
ing of  what  I  was  to  him  at  first,  can  never  be  wholly 
changed  by  anything  I  might  be  to  him  at  last.  To  find 
me  still  here  when  he  besjan  to  realize  all  things  once 
more,  would  make  him  mad  again.  Had  he  escaped  this 
saving  prostration,  I  must  still  have  gone,  as  I  told  him 
on  that  fearful  night.  It  is  much  better  that  I  should  go 
at  once." 


THE   CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL.  317 

Dollie  went  stealthily  to  bend  over  her  Father,  who 
had  moved ;  and,  on  returning  to  the  window,  did  not 
sit  down. 

"  You  are  the  wiser  judge  of  what  should  and  must 
be,"  she  said,  looking  wistfully  out  into  the  night  through 
the  tall  window.  "If  it  is  for  the  best  that  you  should 
leave  us  in  this  way,  I  can  only  say,  sincerely,  that  I  am 
sorry  to  lose  such  a  friend  as  you.  have  proved  yourself  to 
be,  Dr.  Canary ;  I  can  only  promise  that  it  shall  be  a 
part  of  my  gratitude  to  you  to  persuade  my  Father,  when 
he  is  himself  again,  to  judge  you  justly." 

"  Rather  help  him  to  forget  that  I  ever  lived,  if  he 
can ;  and  do  you,  too,  dismiss  me  from  your  memory 
with  the  other  misfortunes  of  these  past  accursed  months  !" 
exclaimed  Canary,  bitterly.  "Never  mention  my  name 
to  him  even  ;  or,  if  he  speaks  of  me  on  awaking  from  the 
rest  now  given  him,  strive  to  make  him  believe  that  I 
have  been  but  a  part  of  the  miserable  dream  commencing 
at  this  very  window." 

"  Was  it  a  dream  f  whispered  Dollie,  turning  sharply 
toward  him  with  a  look  which  he  could  feel. — "  O,  Doc- 
tor Canary,  was  that  all  a  dream  ?" 

"From  my  inmost  soul  I  believe  that  it  was — have 
always  believed  that  it  was  !"  he  answered,  with  intense 
vehemence, — "  a  distempered  imagination's  circumstan- 
tial delusion,  growing  from  a  violent  nervous  shock. 
This  it  is  that  saves  my  bad  work  here  from  being  the 
deliberate  Crime  of  a  hardened  villain,  instead  of  a  mo- 
mentary rascal's  desperate  trick  of  chance.  One  of  my 
objects  in  soliciting  this  last  conversation  with  you,  was 
to  reassure  you  as  to  your  Father's  unhappy  belief  in  my 
power  to  ruin  him  through  that  dream." 

"I  don't  know  what  I  have  dreaded  ; — but  something 


318  THE    CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

awful;  worse  than  I  dare  name,"  murmured  the  girl, 
greatly  agitated. 

"  Did  the  neighbors  who  wrote  you  to  come  home  from 
school  when  he  was  so  ill,  relate  to  you  the  circum- 
stances of  your  Stepmother's  accident  ?"  asked  Canary. 

"  They  had  told  me  she  had  fallen  from  the  ladder,  and 
been  taken  to  the  Hospital ;  and  they  told  me,  while  I 
watched  by  Father,  that  she  was  dead." 

"  When  I  came  in  here  with  him,  and  found  the  wo- 
man bleeding,  almost  on  the  spot  where  we  now  stand," 
returned  Doctor  Canary,  hushing  his  voice  at  the  lowest 
breath,  "  I  felt  assured  that  she  had  fallen  from  the  top 
of  the  ladder,  after  fixing  that  curtain  up  there  as  it  now 
is,  and  struck  her  head  against  a  corner  of  the  chair  be- 
low. I  told  the  crowd  in  the  store  that  it  was  so ;  and, 
seeing  the  poverty  of  the  place,  and  Mr.  Dapple's  help- 
less condition,  took  the  responsibility  of  ordering  her  re- 
moval to  the  hospital.  But  after  she  had  gone  thither, 
and  your  Father  saw  me  eyeing  him  again,  he  raved  of — 
Murder." 

Smothering  an  exclamation  of  horror,  Dollie  sank  into 
the  chair  beside  her. 

" —  I  gathered  from  his  incoherent  ejaculations  of  terror 
and  despair,  that  he  and  she  had  quarrelled  bitterly ; 
that,  in  the  momentary  frenzy  occasioned  by  some  in- 
tolerable taunt  of  hers  respecting  his  invention,  he  had 
furiously  thrown  the  Walking  Doll  at  her : — seen  it  strike 
her  upon  the  head ;  seen  her  fall  upon  the  bed ; — and 
had  run  wildly  out  to  the  street,  unbelieving  what  he 
had  done ;  and  had  come  back  again,  still  unbelieving — 
to  find  her  bleeding  to  death  under  this  window !" 

u  Then,"  gasped  the  girl,  cowering,  and  pressing  both 
hands  to  her    throbbing  temples — "  then  what  T  heard 


TIIE   CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING    DOLL.  319 

him  raving  of  in  that  sickness,  was  no  dream. — Oh  God  ! 
that  we  might  both  die  this  night !" 

"  It  was  a  dream,  and  no  more,"  muttered  Canary,  his 
mouth  almost  touching  her  ear,  and  his  hand  resting  ten- 
derly on  her  head.  li  He  threw  the  clock-work,  and  it 
must  have  passed  through  the  window ;  but  the  wound 
upon  that  woman's  head  was  made  by  the  chair,  and 
from  the  chair's  edge  I,  myself,  wiped  blood  and  hair ! 
I  have  tried  to  tell  him  this  a  dozen  times ;  would  have 
sworn  to  his  innocence  in  any  court,  at  any  cost  to  my- 
self; but,  in  his  madness,  he  would  never  hear  me.  He 
was  distempered  in  his  mind,  already,  when  his  wife's 
temper  wrought  him  up  to  violence;  and  has  been  a 
monomaniac  ever  since.  The  Walking  Doll  has  been 
his  curse;  but  now  it  is  destroyed,  and  he  will  awake 
from  his  dream — " 

Both  started  and  held  their  breath  at  the  instant ;  for, 
by  the  faint  light  in  the  room,  they  could  see  the  Toy- 
man's head  rising  from  its  pillow,  as  his  arms  feebly  out- 
stretched in  seeming  welcome  of  some  form  invisible  to 
them.  "  Lydia — forgive — "  he  cried,  in  a  strong,  plea- 
sant voice  of  surprise ;  then  sank  back  again  into  motion- 
less silence. 

The  awe-stricken  pair  were  at  the  bedside,  in  a  mo- 
ment, the  girl  uttering  tremulous  words  of  soothing,  and 
the  man  bending  over  the  haggard  upturned  face  in 
anxious  scrutiny  ;  but  Geoffrey  Dapple  was  lying  exactly 
as  he  had  lain  before,  and  gave  no  sign  of  greater  con- 
sciousness. 

"  He  has  better  dreams  already,"  said  Canary,  softly, 
"  and  will  believe  what  you  have  to  tell  him  when  his 
mind  wakes  fresh  and  new  from  this  clearing  rest.  The 
Curse  of  the  Walking  Doll  will  go  from  his  heart  and 


320  THE    CURSE   OF   THE   WALKING   DOLL. 

hearth  with  me ;  and,  in  this  world,  he  shall  never  know 
me  more." 

Turning  from  his  contemplation  of  the  unheeding 
father,  he  rested  his  hand  upon  the  back  of  the  daugh- 
ter's chair ;  and  added,  in  the  same  soft,  lulling  voice, — 

"  If  the  blessing  of  a  contrite  sinner  can  bring  good 
to  such  as  you,  true-hearted  girl !  I  leave  it  with  you  as 
my  last  and  only  tribute.  Your  filial  patience  and  devo- 
tion first  awoke  my  self-reproach  in  this  house,  and  I  felt 
more  guilty  under  your  earliest  look  of  just  contempt 
than  if  the  eyes  of  a  whole  court  had  pronounced  me 
criminal.  And  then  you  trusted  me,  when  my  only  plea 
was  penitence  for  having  forfeited  all  worldly  trust. 
May  you — and  he  through  you — be  ever  blessed  for  it ! 
His  ears  are  mercifully  closed  to  all  but  the  voices  of  a 
better  dream  than  I  have  brought  him,  and  he  can  not 
hear  me  now, — can  never  hear  me  again  ; — but  with  you 
I  leave  it  to  convince  him,  that,  whatever  I  was  to  him, 
I  never  have  been  unworthy  of  his  utmost  trust  to  you. 
I  say  it  here  by  his  bedside  ;  and  he  may  believe  it,  and 
think  more  forgivingly  of  me  for  it,  when  I  am  far  away, 
and  you  repeat  it  to  him." 

"  I  am  sure  he  will.  O,  Doctor  Canary,  I  am  sure  he 
will !"  murmured  Dollie,  tremulously.  She  was  crying 
to  herself,  and  could  say  no  more. 

Kor  was  more  said  by  either  that  night,  though  they 
kept  watch  all  through  it  side  by  side,  and  took  turns  in 
ministering  to  the  needs  of  him  who  was  never  to  look 
on  one  of  them  again. 

When  the  light  of  morning  found  them  thus,  and  the 
footsteps  of  the  servant  sounded  on  the  stairway  outside, 
Canary  arose  quietly  to  his  feet,  lifted  the  pale  girl's 
hand  for  a  moment  to  his  colorless  lips,  and  after  one 


NEWS   IN   LAKDNEK   PLACE.  321 

long  look  of  piteous  meaning  at  both  father  and  daughter, 
passed  silently  from  the  room,  to  be  seen  there  no  more 
for  ever. 


XXXIX. 

NEWS   LN  LARDNEE  PLACE 

ME.  LARDNER,  as  heretofore  intimated,  was  one 
of  those  rich  and  presumptuous  plebeians  of  whom 
no  right-minded  literary  man  can  either  think  or  write 
with  any  patience.  In  addition  to  his  preposterous  per- 
tinacity in  believing  his  counting-house  mind  capable  of 
considering  other  matters  than  the  Hide-market  intelli- 
gently, he  was  responsible  for  all  the  poverty  and  want  in 
the  city ;  blameable  for  the  poor  sale  of  paintings  by  in- 
numerable great  American  artists  as  compared  with  the 
sale  of  inferior  imported  works  by  Frere,  Dore,  Landseer 
and  others ;  guilty  of  causing  inordinate  taxes  to  be  col- 
lected of  the  noble  working-man  ;  reprehensible  for  call- 
ing himself  a  "  miserable  sinner  "  in  church  when  he  was 
really  worth  money ;  despisable  for  holding  all  the  cor- 
rupt shoddy  contracts  by  which  millions  on  millions  were 
infamously  plundered  from  the  Treasury  during  the  War ; 
and  directly  chargeable  with  having  influenced  all  the 
publishers  to  decline,  with  some  contumely,  the  new  novel 
by  Byron  Cox,  Esquire. 

Here's  a  disagreeable  character  to  waste  intellect  upon, 
and  his  appearance  in  this  genteel  tale  has  been  tolerated 
as  seldom  as  possible.  Having  once  been  admitted,  how- 
ever,— but  only  because  his  house  was  needed  for  the  in- 


322  NEWS    IN   LARDNER   PLACE. 

evitable  dinner  party  and  ball — he  must  needs  be  endnred 
in  another  little  scene  or  two.  Therefore,  at  a  whistle 
from  the  prompter,  the  toy-store,  dividing  exactly  in  the 
middle,  disappears  on  either  side  of  the  stage,  and  this 
disgusting  man,  with  his  eternal  commercial  newspaper  on 
his  knees,  is  discovered  sitting  in  his  Library -chair,  while 
Lncy  occupies  a  seat  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  writing- 
table. 

"  Pa,  I  can  scarcely  believe  my  own  ears,"  said  Lucy. — 
"Actually  gone  away,  you  say?" 

"  As  I  have  already  told  you,  my  dear,"  answered  Mr. 
Lardner,  gravely  regarding  the  backs  of  his  hands,  "  she 
and  her  son  left  the  house  within  an  hour  after  she  had 
handed  the  man's  letter  to  her  hus — to  Mr.  Aster." 

'■  And  she  herself  handed  the  letter  to  Uncle  !" 

"  She  did.  A  woman  of  nerve,  at  any  rate ;  and  he" 
conduct  under  this  terrible  discovery  had  something  reaH 
grand  in  its  resolute  quickness.  She  was  white  as  death, 
and  wept  bitterly  when  my  brother  entreated  her  to  re- 
main,— even  sank  upon  his  knees  in  his  agony  ; — but  left 
the  house  within  the  very  hour  which  had  brought  her 
proof  that  he  was  not  her  husband." 

"  Where  can  she  have  gone  VI  said  Lucy,  more  to  her- 
self than  to  her  father. 

"  That  is  not  known  yet  at  the  house.  Young  Dan- 
forth  is  to  wait  upon  poor  Philip  in  a  day  or  two  with 
intelligence  of  what  may  occur." 

"  What  a  dreadful  blow  for  poor  Uncle,  Pa.  It  will 
kill  him." 

"  It  is  strange,"  said  her  father,  musingly ;  "  but  he 
seemed  far  stronger  and  better  this  afternoon  than  I  had 
thought  he  ever  could  be  again  !  The  shock  of  this  as- 
tounding calamity  has  actually  frightened  away  his  disease 


NEWS    IN   LARDNER    PLACE.  323 

I  think.  "Why,  Lucy,  lie  walked  the  floor  while  I  was 
there,  and  talked  with  a  passion  and  strength  of  voice 
startling  to  hear  from  a  man  who,  but  a  fortnight  ago, 
was  at  death's  door." 

"  He  loved  her  so  !"  exclaimed  Miss  Lardner,  pityingly. 

"Loved  her!"  repeated  the  gentleman,  with  strong 
emotion.  •*•"  I  never  heard  such  praise  of  human  thing 
from  human  lips  as  his  of  her.  He  went  from  tears  to 
the  most  vainglorious  pride,  and  from  that  to  sobs  again, 
in  speaking  of  what  she  had  been  to  him.  I  was  very 
much  affected  by  it,  my  dear ;  very  much."  And  Mi*. 
Lardner  blew  his  nose  to  hide  the  moisture  even  then  in 
his  eyes. 

"  I've  hated  her  all  along,"  cried  Lucy,  coloring  very 
warmly  at  this ;  "  but  now  I'm  sorry  enough  for  her  to 
beg  her  pardon  for  it !  Poor  thing !  What  a  blessing 
that  she  has  a  son  to  stand  by  her  in  this  cruel,  awful  mis- 
fortune! And  yet,"  added  the  young  lady,  cooling  as 
suddenly  as  she  had  flamed  before,  "  she  deserved  some- 
thing as  bad  for  poisoning  Uncle's  mind,  as  she  has, 
against  his  own  sons.  Think,  Pa,  of  poor  John  and  Phil- 
ip,— especially  Cousin  John.  He  says  that  she  was  at 
the  bottom  of  that  shameful  watch-story.  I  don't  know, 
after  all,  that  I  pity  her  half  as  much  as  I  do  poor  L"ncle." 

"This  is  not  a  time  to  remember  her  imperfections 
only,"  was  the  paternal  answer.  "  She  has  certainly  been 
a  devoted  wife  to  my  brother  Philip  ;  and  we  may  fairly 
assume  that  her  animosity  against  John  and  his  brother 
has  had  some  provocation.  Now  don't  jerk  your  chin  in 
that  way,  Lucy  ;  I  am  not  justifying  her  in  that  matter; 
only  giving  her  the  charity  due  to  her  present  miserable 
predicament.  Judging  from  the  cool  assurance — not  to 
call  it  astounding  impudence ! — with  which  John  Aster 


324  NEWS    IN    LARDNEIl   PLACE. 

has  treated  me,  it  is  barely  possible  that  his  conduct 
toward  this  unhappy  Stepmother  has  not  been  calcu- 
lated to  conciliate  the  good  will  of  a  high-spirited  wo- 
man." 

In  his  blind  self-importance,  this  man  could  not  perceive 
that  the  natural  contempt  of  a  proud,  intellectual,  high- 
strung  nature  for  such  an  opinionated  parvenu  as  himself, 
was  very  different  from  the  logical  resentment  of  a  dis- 
owned son  against  the  designing  woman  who  had  schemed 
to  defeat  his  every  honest  effort  to  turn  her  husband,  his 
sire,  against  her. — But  what's  the  use  ! 

"  If  you  have  so  much  charity  for  people,  Pa,"  rejoined 
Lucy,  coloring  again,  "  I  should  think  you  might  show  a 
little  more  for  one  of  your  own  sex.  As  I've  often  tried 
to  convince  you,  Cousin  Jack  has  undergone  enough  to 
make  any  proud  man  temporarily  irritable.  To  be  made 
an  unwelcome  guest  in  his  own  father's  house  was  bad 
enough  ;  but  just  think  of  his  being  obliged  to  go  around 
disguised  as  a  near-sighted  Spanish  marquis,  because  even 
those  of  his  own  proper  home  believed  that  he  had  picked 
a  pocket !" 

u  My  dear,"  remonstrated  Mr.  Lardner,  smiling  at  her 
vehemence,  "  that  is  certainly  a  hard  trial,  and  a  very 
curious  riddle  ;  but  you  forget  the  forbearance  I  have 
really  shown  to  this  dray-driving  Spanish  marquis  of 
yours.  But  for  your  championship  of  the  extraordinary 
youth,  that  tumble  down-stairs  of  his,  and  really  insolent 
public  advice  respecting  the  ashes,  would  have  been  his 
last  chance  to  show  his  irritable  pride  in  my  house !  I 
think  that  there  is  a  chance  now  for  reconciliation  be- 
tween the  father  and  son,  and  when  I  see  your  Uncle 
again  to-morrow  I  shall  renew  the  subject,  if  there  is  a 
chance ;  but  if  John  comes  here  on  New  Year's  Day,  as 


NEWS   LN   LARDNER   PLACE.  325 

you  expect,  and  cuts  up  any  more  ill-mannered  capers,  I 
shall  certainly  show  him  the  door." 

Thinking,  perhaps,  that  he  had  said  a  good  thing,  and 
willing  to  let  it  rankle  silently  awhile  in  the  gentle  heart 
it  had  wounded,  the  high  and  mighty  dealer  in  hides 
abruptly  ended  the  conversation  by  lifting  his  newspaper 
to  the  proper  angle  for  reading,  and  directed  his  whole 
attention  to  its  columns.  Scarcely  had  he  done  this,  how- 
ever, when  he  spoke  again  : 

"  What's  this,  Lucy  %  Listen—4  The  police  of  the  — th 
precinct  report,  that,  at  a  very  early  hour  on  Christmas 
morning,  an  old  man,  without  hat  or  boots,  and  present- 
ing a  very  wild  appearance,  entered  the  Station-house, 
and  demanded  that  those  in  charge  should  take  him  into 
custody  for  some  mysterious  crime.  He  followed  this 
strange  demand  with  a  furious  and  unprovoked  assault 
upon  an  officer  in  attendance,  whom  he  had  choked  severely 
before  the  astounded  spectators  could  drag  him  from  his 
prostrate  victim.  Being  finally  mastered  and  incapaci- 
tated from  doing  farther  harm,  he  was  found  to  be  raving 
mad,  and  confined  in  a  cell  to  await  inquiries.  At  a  later 
hour,  persons  in  search  of  him  arrived  at  the  station,  affirm- 
ing that  he  had  escaped  from  his  bed  into  the  streets  in  a 
delirium  of  fever,  and  was  a  well-known  inventor  of  me- 
chanical toys,  named  Dapple, — the  same  whose  curious 
poetical  placards  have  attracted  so  much  popular  notice 
by  their  odd  philosophy.  Police-Surgeon  Hembold  re- 
ported the  poor  old  gentleman  suffering  from  congestion 
of  the  brain,  and  Alderman  MacFinnigan  gave  an  order 
for  Mr.  Dapple's  return  to  his  alarmed  relatives.  He  was 
taken  home  in  a  state  of  complete  mental  and  bodily  pros- 
tration.'— There,  my  daughter,  I  told  you  that  man  wa3 
not  in  his  senses." 


326  NEWS    W   LARDNER   PLACE. 

Miss  Lardner  met  her  father's  inquiring  look  with  one 
of  distressed  surprise. 

"  How  perfectly  awful !"  she  exclaimed,  using  a  phrase 
indiscriminately  applied  by  young  ladies  to  a  great  disas- 
ter, or  the  ripping  of  a  glove.  u  Poor  Dollie  must  be 
half  crazy,  herself.  Can't  we  do  something  for  them, 
Pa?" 

"  If  we  can  help  them,  I've  no  objection,  my  dear. — 
But  don't,  you  see,  Lucy,  that  this  may  make  some  differ- 
ence in  the  new  watch-story  ?  Suppose  Mr.  Dapple  has 
been  insane  all  this  while,  and  only  fancied  that  the  watch 
was  not  his.  He  talked  so  incoherently — so  like  a  man 
perfectly  beside  himself  with  some  crazy  terror — that  I 
could  make  but  little  sense  from  what  he  said  after  I  had 
sent  for  him." 

"  No,  Pa  !"  cried  Lucy,  hastily,  "  there  can  be  no  mis- 
take there.  You  know  what  Uncle's  nurse,  that  strange 
Mrs.  Dedley,  told  me  ?  Besides,  Dollie  herself  knows 
that  her  father  did  not  take  his  own  watch  with  him 
when  he  went  out  that  day,  and  certainly  brought  back 
another  just  like  it." 

"  Ah,  well !"  sighed  Mr.  Lardner,  after  a  ruminating 
pause,  "  there's  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  this  world." 

Why  didn't  he  prevent  it,  then  ?  What  did  he  mean 
by  speaking  of  it  as  though  he  really  felt  some  sorrow 
for  the  trouble  ?  Was  the  man  so  besotted  in  the  conceit 
of  his  own  full  fidelity  to  every  possible  obligation  of 
Christian  duty,  that  he  could  not  see  the  hypocritical  in- 
consistency of  sitting  there  at  ease  in  his  comfortable 
chair,  and  sighing  for  the  troubles  of  those  who  had  no 
comfortable  chairs  to  be  at  ease  in — or,  if  they  had, 
couldn't  feel  easy  in  them  ?  Why  didn't  he,  if  his  pity 
was  sincere,  put  all  his  wealth  into  a  carpet-bag,  and  go 


DANFORTII.  327 

out  into  the  highways  and  byways,  amongst  the  lame, 
halt,  and  blind,  and — But  what's  the  use  ! 

"  Yes,  indeed,"  assented  Lucy,  downcasting  her  blue 
eyes  in  the  prettiest  possible  sadness ;  "  there's  trouble 
almost  everywhere  that  I  look,  except  in  our  own  home. 
"We  ought  to  be  very  thankful, — you  and  I,  Pa," — she 
added,  raising  her  glance  to  his  face  again  in  thoughtful 
abstraction, — "  we  ought  to-be  thankful  that  none  of  these 
perfectly  awful  things  have  happened  to  us,  and  do  all 
that  we  can  to  help  the  unfortunate — particularly  Cousin 
Jack.     We  ought  to " 

"  That's  very  true,"  struck  in  Mr.  Lardner,  with  great 
precipitation,  "that's  very  true,  my  dear.  Now  go  play 
the  piano,  and  let  me  read." 

Here  Patience,  descending  from  the  monument  erected 
especially  for  its  accommodation  in  the  little  smiling 
match  Avith  Grief,  closes  at  once  with  Lardner, — as  an 
aggravation  altogether  too  much  for  its  affability,  —  is 
heavily  thrown  by  him,  and  expires  of  exhaustion. 


XL. 


DANFOETH. 

ME.  STALKEK'S  threatened  revenge  had,  indeed, 
fallen  in  a  lightning  stroke  at  last  upon  the  head 
of  the  Imposing  Mrs.  Aster.  While  yet  her  grief  for 
the  poor  little  baby -boy  was  in  its  first  unspoken  bitter- 
ness, and  her  battle  with  her  foes  nearest  the  humiliation 
of  hostile  victory,  there  had  come  to  her  a  letter  from  a 


328  DA^FOETH. 

hand  which  she  had  believed  was  long  ago  withered  into 
dust,  telling  her  that  she  was  not  a  lawful  wife  in  the 
luxurious  home  she  ruled,  and  briefly  asking  an  interview 
in  the  name  of  him  to  whom  her  maiden  troth  had  been 
plighted.  In  the  first  agony  of  such  a  blasting,  merciless, 
incredible  blow  as  this,  a  woman  not  enslaved  by  the 
tyranny  of  a  queenly  personal  appearance,  and  its  imper- 
ative domestic  and  social  obligations,  would  have  refused 
to  believe  in  such  an  astounding  disaster,  gone  into  hys- 
terics at  sight  of  the  signature  of  the  dead,  and  finally 
fled  for  protection  and  vindication  to  the  arms  of  the  last 
lord  of  her  wifely  allegiance.  But,  as  has  already  been 
told  by  one  whom  it  were  needless  exasperation  to  name 
so  soon  again,  the  majestic  lady  of  Jenkins  Place  yielded 
to  none  of  these  privileges  of  the  unimposing  of  her  sex. 
Awful,  overwhelming  as  the  revelation  was,  Mrs.  Aster 
never  doubted  for  an  instant  that  the  letter  came  from 
him  whose  signature  ended  it ;  she  uttered  no  outcry 
that  any  human  ear  could  catch  ;  but,  with  a  countenance 
like  ice,  carried  the  fatal  paper  to  the  old  man  in  the  pil- 
lowed chair,  and  bade  him  read  and  believe  it !  He, 
incredulous  and  livid  with  heroic  wrath  at  first,  gasped 
her  beloved  name  with  the  fondest  endearments  and  out- 
stretched arms ;  and,  in  his  frenzy,  kneeled  to  pray  that 
she  would  not  leave  him, — that  she  would  let  him,  weak 
as  he  had  been,  but  stronger  than  a  giant  as  he  would  be, 
stand  between  her  and  this  dishonoring  spectre  ;  that  she 
would  despise  the  world's  opinion  and  fly  with  him  whose 
love  for  her  was  his  life,  beyond  the  reach  of  law — for  his 
sake,  for  the  sake  of  their  dead  child  !  All  was  in  vain. 
The  tears  rolled  down  her  colorless  cheeks,  and  every 
line  of  her  face  was  sharpened  with  agon}'- ;  but  she 
would  not  even  permit  him  to  clasp  her  in  his  arms. 


DANF0RTH.  329 

"Philip,"  she  said,  with  a  voice  which  might  have 
sounded  from  an  automatic  effigy  of  misery,  "  you  must 
not  tempt  me  to  forget  for  one  moment  what  this  letter 
means.  I  can  not  stay  in  this  house  an  hour  longer  with- 
out guilt,  and  I  shall  not.  I  must  go  instantly  !  If  you 
love,  if  you  respect  me,  do  not  remonstrate  farther, 
Philip.  I  shall  have  Theodore's  company  and  protection. 
Spare  me  now.     I  will  write." 

"  Would  you  go  to  him  f  gasped  the  sick  man,  rising 
to  his  feet,  for  the  first  time  in  months,  and  presenting  a 
ghastly  image  of  horror. 

"  I  shall  tell  him  that  the  law  he  has  made  me  outrage 
must  right  me ;  and  then  see  him  no  more,"  answered 
she,  shuddering  as  she  spoke,  but  never  quailing. 

"  Don't  go — not  yet,  not  yet,"  he  panted,  staggering  in 
an  effort  to  clasp  his  thin  hands,  and  falling  heavily  back 
into  his  chair  with  a  piteous  groan. 

Seeing  that  he  had  fainted,  she  darted  to  his  side,  sob- 
bed once  as  she  kissed  his  cold  damp  forehead,  and  after 
ringing  the  bell,  went  hurriedly  to  her  own  room. 

So  it  was  that,  under  the  name  of  Mrs.  Philips,  she 
stood  in  a  private  upper  parlor  of  a  retired  hotel  near  the 
central  part  of  the  city,  when  a  servant,  whose  knock 
had  called  her  to  the  door,  presented  a  card  on  which 
was  written  the  name  "  Danforth." 

Turning  from  him  toward  the  light  of  the  windows,  as 
though  to  decipher  the  signature,  she  remained  motion- 
less and  silent  in  that  position  for  a  moment ;  then  said, 
without  moving,  and  in  an  indifferent  tone  :  a  Ask  the 
gentleman  to  walk  up." 

The  door  closed  again,  she  threw  a  quick,  frightened 
look  at  it  over  her  shoulder,  and  took  one  or  two  hurried 
steps  toward  adoor  leading  apparently  into  another  room  ; 


330  DANFORTH. 

but,  even  while  this  wrought-up  impulse  to  flight  was  up- 
on her,  her  startled  eve  caught  her  own  reflection  in  a 
broad  mirror  over  a  mantle  ;  and  she  stopped  and  drew 
herself  proudly  erect  on  the  instant,  at  that  reminder  of 
the  queenly  woman  she  was. 

The  door  opened  once  more,  and,  with  head  inclined, 
there  entered  the  husband  from  the  dead — Doctor  Canary  ! 

Stopping  within  a  few  paces  of  the  lady,  he  raised  his 
eyes  respectfully  to  meet  hers,  and  they  stood  looking  at 
each  other  in  a  long,  unrevealing  stare. 

"  Adelaide,"  he  said,  questioning  and  appealing  in  the 
one  low-spoken  word. 

"  I  thought  you  were  dead,  Gerald  Danforth.  I  hoped 
you  were  dead,"  she  answered,  in  a  voice  firm  and  cold  as 
ice.  "  You  have  brought  me  to  worse  than  death,  and  I 
have  no  words  for  you  but  words  of  hatred  and  de- 
fiance." 

"  I  have  expected  nothing  else,  deserved  none  other,  and 
have  come  only  to  put  your  remedy  into  your  own  hands," 
he  said,  his  face  working  with  strong  emotion,  but  his 
voice  and  manner  as  firm  as  hers. 

"  My  remedy  shall  be  the  law,"  she  responded,  quickly 
and  harshly.  "  You  shall  answer  to  the  law  for  the  crim- 
inal, cowardly  deception 'you  have  dared  to  put  upon  me. 
I  repudiate  every  claim  of  yours  upon  me  ;  I  am  here  for 
my  own  sake,  and  not  in  answer  to  any  wish  of  yours ; 
and  after  this  hour  I  will  never  suffer  the  degradation  of 
standing  under  the  same  roof  with  vou  ao-ain." 

"  I  can  bear  your  reproaches  and  taunts,"  he  returned, 
looking  steadily  and  calmly  at  her;  "for  they  could  not 
be  severer  than  the  blame  self-applied.  I  have  been  a 
failure  all  my  life ;  a  misfortune  to  all  connected  with 
me,  and  a  greater  misfortune  to  myself.     Think  harshly 


DANFOETH.  331 

of  me  as  you  will  for  my  conduct  in  the  time  long  past ; 
but  do  not  esteem  me  such  a  villain  as  to  have  intentionally 
brought  you  into  your  present  unhappy  situation.  As 
God  is  my  judge,  I  never  dreamed  of  such  a  consequence 
as  this  when  I  threw  aside  a  name  I  had  failed  to  make 
honorable,  and  sank  to  a  life  which  would  have  disgraced 
it  the  more  in  men's  ears.  I  never  dreamed  of  such  a 
consequence  as  this." 

"  You  honored  it  by  making  it  a  dead  man's  name — the 
name  of  a  creature  found  starved,  or  frozen,  or  drowned, 
like  a  houseless  vagrant,"  retorted  the  woman.  "  I  saw 
it  so  honored  in  print,  and,  believed, — with  thankful 
heart ! — that  I  was  free  from  you  for  ever. — As  I  will  be, 
Gerald  Danforth,  from  this  hour  forth !" 

"  You  have  but  to  go  to  a  Western  city,  and  tell  any 
Court  what  I  have  clone,  and  it  will  free  you  with  honor 
to  yourself,  and  dishonor  to  me,  in  a  month,"  said  Dan- 
forth, humbly.  "  Or  you  may  do  the  same  here  in  ^"ew 
York,  if  you  do  not  fear  the  voice  of  gossip.  I  shall  not 
oppose  you,  though  it  blackens  my  true  name,  indeed,  for 
all  time.  To  you,  however,  I  shall  make  this  defence  :  I 
once  gave  the  coat  off  my  back  to  a  poor,  shivering  wretch 
who  had  come  begging  into  a  bar-room  on  a  bitter  winter's 
night.  He  was  found  dead  in  that  coat  afterwards,  I 
heard,  and,  from  a  paper  which  I  had  accidently  left  in 
the  pocket,  and  which  he,  himself,  probably,  never  dis- 
covered, he  was  taken  for  me.  On  learning  this,  I  was 
glad  to  have  it  thought  that  Gerald  Danforth  was  no  more  ; 
and  took  the  name  which  I  now  bear,  which  I  shall  con- 
tinue to  bear,  as  a  surety  of  the  world's  forgetfulness  of 
whom  I  once  was.  Until  told  of  the  consequence  to  you 
by  a  man  you  had  made  your  enemy,  I  did  not  even  know 
that  you  lived." 


332  DANFORTH. 

No  perceptible  change  came  over  the  set,  white,  fierce 
face  of  the  lady  as  she  listened ;  and,  in  replying,  her 
voice  was  still  harsh  with  implacable  resentment.  "  You 
have  broken  the  heart  of  a  man  whose  shoes  yon  were 
never  worthy  to  unloose,"  she  said,  with  a  mingling  of 
bitterness  and  ineffable  contempt ;  "  you  have  cast  re- 
proach upon  the  grave  of  his  dead  child ;  you  have 
brought  the  stigma  of  crime  upon  the  Mother  of  your 
own  son  ;  and  bowed  that  son's  head  with  shame  for  both 
of  us."  » 

"  My  Son !"  echoed  Danforth,  with  the  ghastly,  quiv- 
ering look  of  a  man  who  had  been  struck  in  the  face. 

"  Your  Son,"  she  repeated,  pointing  in  pitiless  exulta- 
tion toward  the  inner  door, — "  Theodore  Danforth,  who 
is  now  in  that  room,  and  at  a  call  from  me,  would  enter 
and  cast  you  forth." 

"  Woman !"  cried  Danforth,  clutching  his  breast,  as 
though  he  would  fain  tear  open  the  bleeding  heart  beneath 
for  her  to  see,  "with  all  your  wrongs,  you  might  have 
spared  me  this !" 

As  she  marked  his  sudden  agony  and  the  triumph  it 
gave  her,  there  was  something  in  the  sight  to  lash  her  into 
a  swift  passion  of  vindictive  excitement,  even  as  a  taste 
of  blood  might  have  frenzied  a  caged  tigress. 

"  I'll  spare  you  nothing !"  she  said,  in  a  kind  of  hoarse 
scream,  while  her  dilated  eyes  fairly  danced  with  exultant 
recognition  of  his  fear  of  her. — "  I'll  spare  you  nothing. — 
Theodore !" 

In  obedience  to  her  call,  the  door  at  which  she  had 
pointed  moved  slowly  open,  and  the  very  ghost  of  Theo- 
dore Danforth — so  pale,  so  drawn  of  face,  so  broken  did 
he  look — entered  the  parlor  and  advanced  mechanically  to 
his  Mother's  side.     His  eyes,  at  first  directed  to  her  only, 


DANFORTH.  333 

now  met  his  father's  hungry  look ;  and  the  elder  man 
seemed  fairly  to  break  and  grow  still  older  at  the  sight. 

"  My  son  ?"  he  said,  slowly,  like  one  questioning  a 
dream.  " Can  this  be  my  little  Theodore?  And  not  a 
word  for  me  ?     Not  a  word,  after  so  many  years  ?" 

"  You  have  ruined  his  every  prospect  in  life,  spoke  the 
wife  of  two  husbands,  in  a  low,  intense,  relentless  tone. 
"  You  have  blighted  his  ambition,  destroyed  his  honora- 
ble pride  in  himself,  and  brought  shame  upon  him  through 
his  Mother." 

"No,"  said  Theodore,  "I  feel  no  shame  from  your  un- 
merited misfortune,  Mother;  nor  is  my  honorable  pride  in 
myself  lost.  Shame  and  personal  degradation  can  come 
to  us  only  through  shameful  acts  of  our  own."  He  utter- 
ed this  in  a  steady,  spiritless  way,  and  repressed  a  sigh  as 
he  finished. 

"  Have  you  no  word  at  all  for  me  fn  cried  Danforth, 
heeding  him  only,  and  that  with  all  the  insatiable  yearning 
of  Nature  in  his  face,  voice,  and  attitude. 

"  I  see  in  you,  Sir,  only  the  author  of  my  Mother's  past 
wrongs  and  present  misery,  "  answered  Theodore,  "  and 
such  words  as  are  your  due  in  that  capacity  should  not  be 
spoken  by  a  son  to  a  father." 

Danforth  compressed  his  twitching  lips  tightly,  breathed 
heavily  through  his  nostrils,  and  let  the  hands  which  he 
had  held  clasped  nervously  before  him,  fall  nervelessly  at 
his  sides. 

"  You  should  not  have  been  present  here,"  he  said,  at 
last.  "  I  came  to  repair  a  wrong  so  far  as  in  me  lay,  and 
to  bear  every  reproach  that  your  Mother  could  heap  upon 
me.  I  came  to  forget  that  I  had  been  sinned  against,  in 
confessing  humbly  that  I  had  sinned.  But  I  see  that  it 
has  been  planned  to  torture,  and  goad,  and  mock  me,  as 


334  DANF0ETH. 

though  I  had  come  to  vindicate  myself,  as  this  woman's 
conscience  has  told  her  that  I  might !  and  yon,  my  son, 
are  called  in,  to  make  my  endurance  greater  than  nature 
can  bear,  by  adding  your  taunts  to  hers."  He  paused  a 
moment,  to  repress  an  excitement  which  had  seemed 
growing  stronger  within  him  at  every  word,  and  then 
added,  hurriedly,  "  I  can  not  speak  calmly,  as  I  should, 
while  you  are  in  the  room,  sir.     I  can  not." 

"  He  shall  remain  here  while  I  do,"  exclaimed  the 
lady,  with  imperious  passion.  "  He  is  my  protection, 
and  I  bid  him  stay.  He  has  heard  enough  for  himself 
already  to  perceive  that  I  shall  need  a  protector  while 
you  see  fit  to  remain." 

The  degrading  implication  of  this  last  cut  called  the 
blood  to  the  brow  of  the  driven  man,  and  a  fire  of 
offended  manhood  to  his  eyes.  Again  he  clutched  his 
hands  before  him,  and  addressed  his  son. 

"  Theodore,  you  will  never  see  me  again  in  this  world 
from  this  day  forth.  Judging  my  sins  as  you  choose,  is 
it  not  still  degrading  to  yourself  to  stand  here  and  see 
the  author  of  your  being  degraded  before  your  eyes  in  a 
meeting  like  this  ?  It  was  unwomanly,  unnatural  to  call 
you  to  such  an  interview,  and  I  beg  you,  for  the  sake  of 
your  future  self-respect,  for  the  sake  of  the  last,  lingering 
feeling  of  filial  tenderness  which  nature  may  yet  inexora- 
bly demand  as  the  basis  of  your  own  claim  upon  the  ten- 
derness of  those  calling  you  Father,  to  heed  me,  for  this 
first  and  last  time,  and  withdraw." 

He  said  it  with  a  strange  mixture  of  struggling  passion 
and  almost  piteous  entreaty,  and  his  face  darkened  when 
he  saw  that  his  request  was  not  to  be  obeyed. 

"After  the  language  you  have  used  respecting  my 
Mother    in   my   presence,"    answered   the    young  man, 


DANFORTH.  335 

avoiding  his  eye  and  looking  sadly  toward  lier  of  whom 
he  spoke,  "  I  can  not  do  what  yon  ask.  This  is  no  inter- 
view for  a  son  to  take  part  in,  as  yon  say,  Sir ;  but  it  is 
an  occasion  when  a  Mother's  command  mnst  prove  su- 
perior to  a  Father's." 

"  I'll  ask  you  no  more !"  cried  Danforth,  no  longer 
repressing  the  rising  torrent  of  his  emotion,  but  speaking 
fast  and  vehemently.  "  If  your  judgment  of  your  un- 
happy Father's  sins  is  to  be  swayed,  and  made  more 
degrading  to  him  than  it  yet  has  been,  by  such  a  scene 
as  this,  you  shall  at  least  hear  him  speak  for  himself. 
Whatever  I  was  in  the  past,  whatever  I  may  be  in  this 
lady's  scorn  and  resentment  now,  I  will  not  stand  in  my 
own  son's  presence  and  tamely  bear  the  full  brand  which, 
in  his  absence,  I  was  prepared  to  endure  patiently. — 
Madam,  I  pray  you  bid  him  leave  us !" 

A  contemptuous  curl  of  the  bloodless  lip,  and  a  haugh- 
tier drawing  up  of  the  Imposing  form,  were  his  sole 
answer. 

"  Then  hear  me,  Theodore  Danforth,"  he  continued, 
with  increased  vehemence,  "  hear  me,  you  Son  of  mine, 
who  saw  me  for  yourself  through  the  eyes  of  infancy 
only,  and  have  seen  me  ever  since  through  Her's  alone. 
I  was  a  weak,  poor-tempered,  broken  husband  to  your 
Mother  here ;  unsuccessful  in  worldly  matters,  a  poor 
staff  to  lean  upon,  and  finally  a  drunkard ;  but  I  never 
abused  her,  even  in  my  cups,  never  was  unfaithful  to  my 
marriage  vows  even  in  the  most  reckless  hour.  My 
weakness  as  a  visionary  in  money  matters  reduced  us  to 
poverty  just  after  you  were  born,  and  that,  aggravated 
by  my  subsequent  yielding  to  the  snare  of  the  bottle, 
turned  her  heart  against  me.  They  were  enough,  I  own, 
for  they  made  me  an  object  of  contempt  to  myself:  but, 


336  DAXFORTH. 

mark  me,  boy, — and  this  is  what  no  other  presence  than 
yours  could  have  wrung  from  my  lips  at  this  time- — I 
had  never  sunk  to  that  last  degradation  of  manhood,  if 
the  reproaches  and  taunts  of  a  bitter  and  tireless  tongue 
had  not  made  my  borne  a  vindictive,  maddening  echo  of 
my  every  misfortune  outside  of  it !  I  returned  to  that 
home  one  night,  after  a  day  of  disaster  and  weakness, 
and  found  that  it  had  been  stripped  bare  to  the  walls  by 
a  fugitive  wife !  In  my  frenzy  of  wrath  and  despair, 
augmented  by  the  liquorish  demon  within  me,  I  hated 
you,  then,  as  well  as  her,  and  asked  of  the  law  only  the 
poor  property  she  had  taken  from  my  house — not  what 
she  had  torn  from  my  heart.  What  more  can  I  say  ?  I 
have  never  troubled  either  her  or  you  since ;  though  God 
knows  how  soon  after  the  first  tempest  of  rage,  I  mourned 
you  both  in  my  outcast  misery.  I  let  my  name  die,  only 
because  I,  myself,  could  not ;  and  if  an  enemy  whom 
your  Mother  had  made  for  herself — a  detective  scoundrel 
named  Stalker — "  (Theodore  started) — "had  not  sought 
me  out,  in  revenge  against  her,  and  told  me  of  her  iden- 
tity with  the  proud  Mrs.  Aster,  of  whom  I  had  often 
heard,  I  should  never  have  made  known  to  you  my  ex- 
istence. That  I  did  so  then,  though  only  after  a  contest 
with  myself,  was  because  every  moment  of  my  life 
thenceforth,  however  far  away,  must  be  fraught  with 
peril  to  her  domestic  relation  and  hold  her  at  the  mercy 
of  an  unscrupulous  scoundrel.  I  made  him  repair  a  wrong- 
he  had  helped  to  do,  by  procuring  a  duly  attested  confes- 
sion from  a  pickpocket,  which  you  may  understand,  and 
which  I  have  had  addressed  to  you ;  and  I  asked  this  in- 
terview of  your  Mother  to-day,  only  that  I  might  assure 
her  of  my  penitent  willingness  to  leave  any  appeal  of 
her's  against  me  to  the  law  uncontested,  and  of  my  dc- 


DANFORTK.  337 

termination  to  use  a  little  sum,  just  bequeathed  to  me  by 
a  deceased  uncle,  in  leaving  the  country  for  ever." 

The  effect  of  this  long  and  indescribably  impassioned 
speech  upon  the  Mother  and  Son  was  curious ;  he  grow- 
ing more  haggard  of  face  and  restless  of  manner  as  it 
went  on ;  and  she  drawing  nearer  to  him  in  a  kind  of 
fear,  which  seemed  to  steal  away  all  her  cold  hauteur,  in 
its  increase,  and  finally  left  her  head  bowed  upon  his 
shoulder ! 

"  Do  you  see  this,  Father  V9  asked  Theodore,  in  an 
agitated  voice,  after  a  silence  of  some  eloquent  moments. 

He  did  see  it ;  looking  on  with  folded  arms  while  the 
two  stood  thus  before  him,  and  gradually  losing  all  the 
fire  from  his  eye,  and  the  defiant  self-assertion  from  his 
bearing  as  he  gazed. 

u  I  am  glad  to  see  it  so  ;  from  the  bottom  of  my  heart 
I  am  glad  to  see  it  so !"  he  faltered,  with  such  trembling 
softness  of  tone  and  manner  as  seemed  to  be  that  of  a 
different  man  from  him  who  had  spoken  before.  "  I 
thank  my  God,  Theodore,  that  you  and  She  love  each 
other  so  dearly." 

u  My  Father !  My  Mother !"  burst  from  the  young 
man's  tortured  lips,  in  a  wail  of  concentrated  agony ; 
and  he  hid  his  face  on  the  head  upon  his  bosom,  and  cast 
his  arms  about  the  parent  to  whom  he  owed  the  most. 

"Adelaide — Theodore,"  sobbed  Danforth,  "  God  bless 
you  both  !     "We'll  meet  again — I  trust — in  Heaven." 

He  whose  wondrous  master-work  is  Man,  has  made 
naught  else  so  inconsistent  to  man's  judgment ; — so  prone 
to  failure  and  to  weakness  below  the  beasts  that  perish ; 
so  capable  of  accomplishment  and  of  strength  above  the 
angels  that  endure  for  ever. 

15 


§38  THE    HALF-BEOTHEES. 

XLT. 

THE   HALF-BEOTHEES. 

IT  is  authentically  related  of  a  gentleman  moving  in 
business  circles,  (by  the  way,  why  is  a  man  never 
credited  with  moving  in  business  Squares  ?  or  why  would- 
n't it  be  more  correct  to  say  dizziness  circles  in  some 
cases  ?)  that,  in  the  very  crisis  of  a  tedious  attack  of  in- 
flammatory rheumatism,  he  was  instantaneously  cured  in 
this  wise :  To  ease  his  intolerable  pains  one  night,  his 
excellent  wife  was  rubbing  him  with  a  certain  patent  ex- 
plosive liniment,  which,  by  the  accidental  overturning  of 
a  lamp  beside  the  bed,  took  fire  upon  him.  Racked  in 
every  bone  and  accoutred  as  he  was,  the  blazing  husband 
sprang  out  of  bed  with  all  the  agility  and  splendor  of  a 
first-class  rocket,  and  not  only  extinguished  himself  with- 
out serious  injury,  after  a  very  brief  pyrotechnical  display, 
(which  threw  his  infant  son  in  a  cradle  near  by  into  an 
ecstacy  of  delight,)  but  was  also  relieved  simultaneously 
and  permanently  of  every  vestige  of  his  disease  ! 

Something  like  this  principle  of  treatment  had  been 
illustrated  in  the  case  of  the  elder  Aster,  upon  whom  the 
tremendous  shock  of  his  domestic  calamity  acted  like  a 
magical  charm.  In  fact,  a  remedy  of  that  kind  is  pretty 
certain  to  kill  or  cure  at  the  very  first  application  ;  and, 
as  it  did  not  prove  fatal  to  him,  he  seemed  to  realize  the 
alternative  with  startling  quickness.  His  wife's  precipi- 
tate departure  left  him  fainting,  after  such  an  exhibition 
of  strength  as  had  appeared  impossible  for  so  sick  a  man  ; 
and,  upon  his  return  to  sensibility  and  a  consciousness  of 


THE   IIALF-rjROTHEKS.  339 

his  tremendous  misfortune,  the  latter  again  agonized 
every  weakened  energy  within  him  into  frantic  strength, 
and  he  sprang  frenziedly  from  his  pillowed  chair,  to  re- 
turn to  it  no  more.  Back  and  forth  he  paced  the  floor 
during  his  half-brother's  first  and  immediate  visit  of  con- 
dolence ;  and  when  Mr.  Lardner  speedily  called  for  the 
second  time,  the  helpless,  long-robed  "  consumptive  "  of 
yesterday  was  clothed  as  became  an  active  member  of 
society,  and  had  but  just  dismissed  an  eminent  man  of 
law  with  whom  he  had  been  closeted  for  nearly  two 
hours. 

It  is  to  this  latter  intrusion  of  the  irrepressible  egotist 
of  Lardner  Place,  that  the  present  chapter  chiefly  refers ; 
and  as  Patience,  after  a  miraculous  resurrection,  is  smirk- 
ing once  more  from  that  eternal  Monument  (commonly 
supposed  to  be  the  "Washington  one  to  the  Father  of  His 
Country,  as  the  whole  nation  has  had  too  much  patience 
with  that  these  many  years)  we  must  even  recur  thus 
soon  again  to  a  character  ever  so  exasperating  to  the 
higher  intellect.  In  short,  at  about  Four  O'clock  P.  M. 
on  a  day  very  near  the  end  of  the  Old  Year,  Mr.  Lardner 
presented  himself  in  Jenkins  Place,  and  was  relieved 
from  the  chilling  dread  which  had  struck  cold  to  his  heart 
from  the  shutter-closed  and  desolate  outward  aspect  of 
the  house,  by  finding  his  afflicted  half-brother  standing 
thoughtfully  before  the  fire  in  the  shaded  room  formerly 
used  by  Mrs.  Aster  for  receptions,  and  wearing  the  look 
of  one  contemplating  anything  else  than  mortuary  pre- 
paration. 

Haggard  and  ghastly  of  face  the  stricken  husband  still 
was  ;  yet  he  stood  erect  as  his  provokingly  healthy  visitor, 
and  shook  hands  with  a  steadiness  of  muscle  not  excelled 
by  the  other. 


340  THE   HALF-BROTHERS. 

"  Well,  Philip,  my  poor  brother,  what  has  another  day 
brought  forth?"  asked  the  newcomer,  drawing  a  chair 
toward  the  grate. 

"  But  little,  but  little,"  ejaculated  Mr.  Aster,  moving 
his  hands  nervously  behind  him  and  speaking  with  sharp 
irritability.  "  Not  a  step  can  be  taken  in  the  accursed 
mazes  of  what  pettifoggers  call  Law,  without  such  fool- 
eries and  delays  as  are  enough  to  drive  a  man  to  dis- 
traction !  Two  days  must  be  allowed  for  this,  and 
a  week  for  that,  and  a  fortnight  for  heaven-knows- 
what." 

a  You  propose  taking  legal  measures  yourself,  then, 
I  infer,"  said  Mr.  Lardner,  making  it  half  a  ques- 
tion. 

'"  Myself !  Why  of  course  1  do,  man  ! — have  taken 
one  already.  A  summons  was  served  upon  that  resur- 
rected villain,  at  my  instigation,  yesterday.  What  do 
you  mean,  Reginald,  by  such  a  remark  as  that  ?" 

rt  My  dear  brother,  I  only  meant  that  I  had  thought  it 
possible  Mrs.  Aster  and  her  son  would  prefer  to  take 
action  in  law  without  involving  you  at  all.  It  had 
seemed  to  me  that  such  would  be  the  more  delicate 
course." 

"  Yery  well,  Sir,"  returned  his  brother,  turning  angrily 
upon  him.  "  If  you  and  I  are  to  continue  friendly  rela- 
tions, you  must  not  talk  in  that  way.  No,  Sir  !  I  wish 
you,  and  all  the  wTorld,  to  distinctly  understand,  that  this 
lady — who  is  still  my  Wife  by  every  right,  human,  or 
divine  ! — has  been  most  infamously  tricked  and  brought 
to  undeserved  sorrow  by  a  brutal  rascal ;  and  that  it  is 
my  business  to  see  that  she  is  fully  righted.  If  she,  her- 
self, opposes  this,  I  shall  not  listen  to  her !  No,  Sir, 
Neither  you,  nor  any  man,  must  dare  to  speak  to  me  of 


TIIE    HALF-BROTHERS.  341 

any  other  course.  My  means,  and  my  lawyer,  and  all 
that  I  can  personally  bring  to  bear,  shall  do  the  work  to 
be  done.  Sewall  has  just  gone  from  me  to  Mrs.  Aster, 
with  my  peremptory  instructions  that  he  shall  draw  the 
Complaint  immediately,  from  her  dictation,  and  ask  the 
appointment  of  a  referee  by  the  Court.  My  wife  shall  be 
no  more  than  a  witness  in  the  case,  Sir  !" 

Here  Mr.  Aster  began  pacing  the  floor,  as  though  his 
thoughts  made  rest  intolerable  to  him,  and  panted  like 
a  man  who  had  been  running. 

"  Is  it  likely,"  inquired  Mr.  Lardner,  after  watching 
him  wTith  great  commiseration,  for  a  while,  "  that  this — 
this  man  will  contest  the  case  ?" 

"  Reginald  Lardner,"  exclaimed  the  half-brother,  stop- 
ping short  before  him,  "  do  you  think  that  the  miscreant 
would  dare  to  ? — but  he  will  not,  Sir.  He  intends  leaving 
the  country  at  once.  There  is  shame  enough  left  in  him 
for  that."  " 

"Then  the  decree  can  be  obtained,  no  doubt,  upon 
the  report  of  the  referee,  and  without  publicity.  That 
is  most  fortunate,  Philip.  By  a  little  good  manage- 
ment, the  whole  affair,  it  appears  to  me,  may  be  kept 
from  the  gossips,  and  pass  unknown  beyond  our  two 
families." 

"  For  her  sake  I  am  thankful  for  that ;  but,  so  far  as  I 
am  concerned,  Brother,  I  should  be  glad  to  have  it  all 
told  in  open  Court.  I  would  gladly  let  the  whole  city 
see  that  I,  the  husband  of  this  cruelly  persecuted  lady, 
have  the  same  pride  in  her  now  that  I  have  always  felt ; 
that  I  hold  it  as  great  an  honor  to  have  my  name  joined 
with  hers  in  this  her  hour  of  bitter,  unmerited  humilia- 
tion, as  it  ever  has  been  to  point  to  her  as  mine  when  the 
haughtiest  of  your  New  York  dames  envied  her  queenly 


342  THE   HALF-BROTHERS. 

dignity !      O,  these  puerile,  torturing,  intolerable  delays 
of  shallow  Law !  they  madden  me  when  I  think  how 

long,  how  long !" 

Again  the  tormented  husband  without  a  wife  paced 
and  panted  ;  and  Mr.  Lardner,  as  he  sat  eying  him,  and 
reflecting  upon  these  evidences  of  his  doting  enthral- 
ment,  felt  that  it  might  not  be  wise  to  mention  Mr.  Jack 
Aster's  case  at  all  on  that  occasion.  But  even  while  he 
was  cogitating  thus,  the  agitated  walker  paused  abruptly 
before  the  very  desk  from  which  the  Stepmother  had 
once  taken  money  to  pay  Mr.  Stalker,  and  took  from  it  a 
folded  paper  of  decidedly  legal  appearance. 

"  Here,  Reginald,  read  this,"  he  said,  tossing  it  to  him, 
and  at  once  resuming  his  impatient  walk. 

"An  affidavit!"  ejaculated  Mr.  Lardner,  in  great  sur- 
prise, and  silently  read  as  follows  : 

"  James  Goggle,  of  the  City  and  County  of  New  York, 
'  being  duly  sworn,  deposes  and  says,  that  he  is  a  news- 
'  man  bj  occupation,  having  residence  at ''  such  a  number 
'  Orange  Street,  in  said  City  of  New  York,  in  aforesaid 
'  County  of  New  York.  That  he,  deponent,  did,  on  the 
*  Twenty-first  day  of  September,  in  the  year  Eighteen 
'  hundred  and  Sixty-eight,  feloniously  abstract  and  steal 
'  a  gold  watch,  in  Chatham  Square,  from  the  pocket  of  a 
'  woman  unknown  to  him  ;  and  that,  being  in  immediate 
'  fear  thereafter  of  discovery  and  arrest,  he,  the  said  James 
i  Goggle,  did  convey  said  watch  to  the  pocket  of  one 
'  Aster,  whose  Christian  name  is  unknowm  to  deponent. 
'  Furthermore,  the  said  James  Goggle  deposes  and  says, 
'  that  lie  is  informed  and  believes  that  said  Aster  was 
i  wrongfully  accused  of  feloniously  appropriating  the 
6  watch  aforesaid,  and  is  still  wrongfully  subject  to  pro- 
'  cess  of  law  for  said  theft,  which  James  Goggle  afore- 


THE    nALF-BROTHERS.  343 

"  said  here  confesses  having  committed  in  his  own  proper 
a  person  and  self. 

his 

"  James  x  Goggle. 

mark. 

rq    -I-,  "  Subscribed  and  sworn  before  me, ) 
L&eaij     thig  24th  ^  of  j)ecemberj  1868>  j- 

"  P.  Fowle,  Notary  Public." 

The  perusal  of  this  edifying  moral  document  threw  the 
reader  into  a  state  of  mind  bordering  on  consternation, 
and  he  stared  doubtfully  from  the  paper  to  the  father  of 
"  said  Aster,"  as  scarcely  knowing  what  style  of  comment 
would  be  appropriate. 

"  This  is  curious,"  he  said  at  last. 

"  It  proves,"  said  Mr.  Aster,  stopping  at  the  mantel- 
piece near  his  brother,  and  leaning  moodily  thereon, 
"  that  my  son  is  not  quite  so  bad  as  we  thought  him." 

"  We/"  thought  Mr.  Lardner  to  himself;  but,  assum- 
ing an  air  of  natural  interest,  he  asked  through  whom  the 
extraordinary  paper  had  been  received  ? 

"  Theodore  Danforth  brought  it  with  him  last  evening, 
when  he  came  to  bring  me  news  of  his — of  my  dear  Ade- 
laide," was  the  slowly  given  answer. 

"Well,  Philip,  what  do  you  think  of  it?" 

"  That  Mrs.  Aster  and  I  have  been  greatly  misled,"  re- 
turned he,  taking  a  seat  for  the  first  time,  and  speaking 
more  calmly  than  before.  "  I  have  instructed  Mr.  Sewall 
to  see  that  my  son  is  at  once  relieved  of  the  false  charge. 
I  believe,  Brother,"  he  continued,  with  a  stern  settling  of 
his  sharpened  features,  "  that  you  have  been  amongst 
those  accusing  Mrs.  Aster  of  enmity  to  my  scapegrace 
boys.  What  shall  you  say  to  that,  when  I  tell  you,  that 
her  son,  Theodore  Danforth,  coming  directly  from  her  in 


344  THE    HALF-BROTHERS. 

the  midst  of  the  greatest  affliction  a  noble-minded  woman 
could  bear,  brought  that  paper  himself,  and  actually  pled 
with  me  to  forgive  John  and  Philip  for  her  sake  !" 

"  As  I  sincerely  hope  you  will,  Philip,  for  your  own/' 
exclaimed  Mr.  Lardner,  quickly.  "You  cannot  more 
thoroughly  vindicate  the  lady  against  all  past  unjust  de- 
traction, than  by  receiving  back  again  the  sons  of  your 
earlier  marriage.     I  am  glad  indeed  to  hear  this." 

"  You  may  tell  John  when  you  see  him  again,"  added 
Mr.  Aster,  in  a  troubled  voice,  "  that  if  he  chooses  to  pre- 
sent himself  here  in  a  few  days  hence,  and  can  return  to 
his  old  home  in  a  proper  spirit,  I  shall  not  repulse  him. 
If  Philip  can  be  found,  the  same  terms  are  offered  to  him. 
You  may  tell  him,  too,  that  the  successful  intercessor  for 
him  and  his  brother  with  me  has  been  their  Stepmother." 

"  Philip,"  cried  the  half-brother,  reaching  forward  as 
he  arose  to  take  the  father's  listless  hand,  "  why  will 
you  not  do  as  I  asked  you  when  here  before  —  make 
my  house  your  home  until  this  trouble  is  past,  and  then 
commence  a  happier  New  Year  by  being  the  first  to  tell 
poor  John  that  he  is  no  longer  fatherless  ?" 

"I  appreciate  your  kindness,  Brother,"  was  the  quiet 
reply ;  "  but  this  house  is  dear  to  me  now  as  no  other 
place  in  this  world  ever  was  before.  Here  I  shall  stay, 
allowing  no  article  to  be  moved  from  where  She  left  it, 
until  she  can  come  back  to  me  once  more,  and,  in  the 
same  hour,  be  solemnly  wedded  to  me  again.  After  that, 
we  shall  depart  at  once  for  Europe,  to  be  gone  some 
years ;  taking  Theodore  with  us,  and  leaving  my  sons  to 
hold  charge  of  the  property  here  and  in  Philadelphia  dur- 
ing our  absence.  Such  is  my  determination,  and  I  shall 
adhere  to  it." 

"  Nor  is  it  any  man's  place  to  dissuade  you,  Brother 


THE   LAST   OF   THE   THREE    COMES    IN.  345 

Philip,"  said  Mr.  Lardner,  putting  on  his  gloves.  u  I 
fully  appreciate  your  feelings  and  shall  not  again  question 
the  course  they  dictate.  I  shall  come  here  to  see  you, 
however." 

''Do.  And  bring  your  daughter.  She  is  a  noble 
girl." 

After  another  brotherly  shake  of  the  hand  the  inter- 
meddling dealer  in  hides  took  bis  departure,  leaving  the 
Imposing  woman's  gray-baired  Knight  to  worship  her 
picture,  and  pledge  heart  and  soul  in  her  cause,  like  any 
forlorn  young  lover. 


XLII. 

THE    LAST   OF   THE   THREE    COMES    IN. 

IN  blissful  ignorance  of  the  retribution  which  had 
overtaken  her  eccentric  lover's  queenly  enemy,  and 
as  unwitting  of  the  better  days  about  to  dawn  upon  that 
young  man's  romantic  path  in  life,  the  Toyman's  daugh- 
ter patiently  nursed  her  father  back  to  the  world  in  which 
he  had  known  so  much  misery,  and  was  overjoyed  to  see, 
that,  as  the  dark  night  of  his  unconsciousness  lightened 
to  the  thin  mist  of  a  first  perception  of  objects, — and  that 
to  the  clear  morning  of  a  mind  awaking  to  activity  again, 
— he  seemed  to  have  scarcely  a  recollection  of  what  had 
brought  him  to  that  bed,  and  only  wondered  why  he  was 
not  strong  enough  to  get  up  and  be  about  as  usual.  He  had 
been  in  total  darkness  for  but  a  single  day  and  night ; 
he  had  wTavered  in  fast  dispersing  shadows  for  but  anoth- 
er day  ;  yet,  in  that  time,  all  impressions  of  three  months 


346  THE   LAST   OF   THE   THREE   COMES    IN". 

of  horror  had  faded  from  his  mind,  and  now,  even  in  his 
great  weakness,  he  looked  and  spoke  almost  like  the  Geof- 
frey Dapple  of  poorer  and  happier  years.  No  longer  was 
the  feverish  glare  of  cowering  hatred  and  suspicion  in  his 
eyes ;  no  longer  did  his  brow  and  lips  compress  under 
the  torturing  restraint  of  fear  and  deadly  cunning ;  no 
longer  was  his  voice  harsh  and  shrill  with  the  suppressed 
rage  of  a  manhood  bound  to  guilty  vassalage  ;  but  there 
he  lay  in  painless,  passive  idleness  in  his  own  old  home, 
sinking  pleasantly  into  dreamless  slumber  as  his  daughter 
read  to  him,  and  waking  to  smile  at  her  and  ask  child- 
like questions  when  she  called  him  by  name. 

And  in  the  toy-store,  Miss  Skeggs  and  the  slow-minded 
young  Algernon,  finding  that  the  head-clerk  returned  not 
after  his  speechless  departure  K  down  town  "  yesterday 
morning,  did  chill  lady-customers  with  freezing  indiffer- 
ence, and  astound  seekers  of  small  wares  with  incredible 
prices,  to  an  extent  never  before  achieved  by  clerkly  ac- 
quisitions of  such  tender  years.  The  mother  who  came 
in  to  look  at  dolls,  was  made  to  feel  that  the  few  slight 
civilities  necessitated  by  the  etiquette  of  such  an  occasion 
must  not  be  presumed  upon  as  a  plea  for  future  recogni- 
tion in  society ;  and  the  heedless  boy  who  asked  the  price 
of  those  small  leather  balls  in  the  window,  was  astonished 
and  rendered  gloomily  thoughtful  for  the  remainder  of 
his  life  by  the  prompt  information  that  fifty  dollars  each 
was  the  price  they  were  marked  at ;  yet  mothers,  and 
boys,  and  men,  swarmed  in  the  evergreen  groves,  and 
among  the  poetical  placards,  and  bought  toys  under  ev- 
ery disadvantage. 

Staring  in  at  shop-windows  is  a  weakness  to  which  we 
all  succumb  more  or  less  :  generally  more.  Certain  lofty 
and  superior  natures,  to  be  sure,  disclaim  this  vulgar  sort 


TIIE   LAST    OF   THE   THREE    COMES   IN.  347 

of  thing  with  a  proud  smile,  and,  indeed,  would  have  you 
understand  that  no  human  interests  below  those  of  emi- 
nent social  rank  and  gigantic  real  estate  can  at  all  divert 
their  eyes  from  the  stately  delight  of  walking  self-contem- 
plation, or  affect  their  steps  and  stoppages  in  the  majes- 
tic promenade  through  life ;  yet  these  are  the  very  mor- 
tals in  whose  secret  hearts  rankles  the  bitterest  enyj  of 
him  who  has  the  incredible  moral  courage  to  stop  at  a 
corner-stand  in  Broadway,  and  openly  buy  a  pint  of  pea- 
nuts, or  some  hot  chestnuts,  when  he  craves  them ;  and 
these  same  elevated  creatures,  too,  will  avail  themselves 
of  the  evening  shades  and  a  strange  neighborhood  to  peer 
much  longer  over  the  greasiest  of  shoulders  into  the  dirti- 
est of  illustrated-newspaper-shop  casements,  than  their  Own 
families  could  possibly  be  made  to  believe.  In  fact,  we 
all  look  into  shop-windows  just  as  long  and  often  as  we 
dare,  to  the  last  days  of  our  lives,  and  many  of  us  acquire 
thereby  a  kind  of  dreamy,  unspeakable  acquaintance  with 
those  who  belong  in  the  shops  themselves.  A  pretty 
girl's  head  and  bust  first  and  last  seen  through  the  iced 
and  raisined  window-display  of  a  Fancy  Bakery,  have  often 
gone  through  a  whole  life  as  a  lovely  ideal  never  to  be  ap- 
proached by  reality  ;  and  an  odd-looking  man's  head  and 
shoulders  only  visible  in  the  dim  distance  between  inter- 
vening rows  of  priced  silver  watches,  boxes  of  finger  rings, 
and  cards  of  breastpins,  have  been  the  shadowy  presentment 
of  perfect  blessedness  to  which  many  an  old  man  in  his 
riches  has  looked  back,  down  weary  years,  with  a  sigh. 
Bearing  all  this  in  mind,  it  may  be  understood  why  the 
new  faces  behind  the  counter  in  the  toy-store  of  this  story 
had  their  conjectural  effect  upon  some  of  the  regular  fre- 
quenters of  the  show-window  ;  leading  one  matronly  fig- 
ure, dressed  in  black  and  thickly  veiled,  to  look  in,  and 


348  THE    LAST    OF    THE    THREE    COMES    IX. 

turn  away,  and  look  in  again,  as  though  almost  unwilling 
to  believe  that  it  was  the  same  place.  At  last,  after  many 
false  starts,  this  veiled  matron  could  bear  it  no  longer,  and, 
in  a  momentary  interval  of  custom,  she  entered  the  store 
and  walked  reverentially  to  where  Miss  Skeggs  usurped 
authority. 

"  I  have  heard,"  she  said,  speaking  modestly  under  her 
veil,  "  that  the  Mr.  Dapple  who  kept  this  store  was  sick. 
Does  he  still  live  here?" 

Now  Miss  Skeggs  was  a  young  lady  whose  brown  hair 
was  fearfully  and  wonderfully  dressed,  and  there  rested , 
upon  it  a  certain  brass  crescent,  or  coronet,  which  to  those 
having  crude  notions  of  royalty,  made  her  look  very  much 
like  a  queen  indeed.  It  was  a  condescension  for  her  to 
be  there  at  all,  as  it  always  is  for  any  lady-clerk  to  be 
anywhere,  and  when  it  came  to  answering  questions  about 
the  family,  like  a  servant-girl  out  sweeping  the  walk, 
things  had  come  to  a  fine  pass. 

"  Inquire  at  the  house-door,"  said  Miss  Skeggs ;  and 
was  immedietely  lost  in  a  dreamy  contemplation  of  the 
street. 

"  If  you  would  be  so  obliging  as  to  tell  me  yourself," 
persisted  the  audacious  intruder,  "  I  should  take  it  as  a 
favor.     I  wish  to  see  Miss  Dapple  particularly." 

"  Algernon  !"  called  Miss  Skeggs,  languidly. 

That  mild-eyed  young  gentleman  at  once  shambled  for- 
ward in  great  haste,  and,  seeing  that  one  hand  of  the 
visitor  rested  upon  an  open  box  of  peg-tops,  straightway 
assured  her  that  tops  were  now  selling  rapidly  (because 
everybody  wanted  them)  at  twenty-live  dollars  apiece — 
or  a  dozen — or  a  gross — he  wasn't  certain  which. 

"  Don't  be  stupid,  Algernon,"  murmured  Miss  Skeggs, 
with  an  air  of  fashionable  ennui,  "  this  person  wishes  to 


THE    LAST    OF   THE   THREE    COMES    TX.  349 

see  Dollie  Dapple,  and  you'd  better  let  her  know."  After 
saying  which  the  lovely  speaker  relapsed  into  freezing 
dreams  on  the  spot. 

"  This  way,  if  you  please,  mum,"  said  Mr.  Skeggs,  go- 
ing toward  the  back  of  the  store.  "  I  didn't  engage  to 
'tend  door,  but  seeing  you're  a  woman  I'll  strain  a  point. — 
Some  one  to  see  you,  Miss  Dollie  ;"  and,  having  opened 
the  door  of  the  sick-room  far  enough  to  make  this  last 
announcement,  he  left  the  visitor  to  do  as  she  chose  about 
walking  in. 

This  the  latter  did,  though  in  a  slow  and  hesitating 
way  ;  and  halted  rigidly  upon  beholding  the  scene  within. 
Dollie,  looking  very  pale  and  worn,  was  reading  some 
book  aloud,  though  in  a  very  low  voice  ;  her  elbows  rest- 
ing upon  the  bedside  with  the  volume  between  them,  and 
one  hand  pulling  at  her  dishevelled  curls,  while  the  other 
gently  patted  the  Toyman's  nearer  arm.  He  was  lying 
quite  still  on  his  back,  his  eyes  closed,  and  his  white  face 
tranquil  with  untroubled  rest. 

Mr.  Skeggs's  concise  announcement  did  not  cause  the 
good  daughter  to  change  her  attitude,  but  she  turned 
from  the  book  just  enough  to  catch  sight  of  the  sombre 
figure  entering,  and  appeared  both  vexed  and  surprised. 

"  Did  you  wish  to  see  me  V  she  asked,  with  more  of 
rebuke  than  inquiry  in  her  subdued  tone. 

"  I — I — beg  your  pardon,"  was  the  stammered  answer. 
"  I  am  Mrs.  Dedley." 

In  response  rather  to  the  curiously  agitated  manner  of 
the  speaker  than  to  any  peculiar  association  recalled  by 
the  name,  Dollie  put  aside  her  book  and  turned  fully 
around  toward  the  door.  The  sick  man,  also,  opened  his 
eyes,  and  made  an  uneasy  movement. 

"  Mrs.  Dedley  V  repeated  Dollie. 


85^  THE   LAST   OF   THE   THREE   COMES   IN. 

"  I  have  been  a  nurse  at — Mr.  Aster's,"  explained  the 
woman,  speaking  almost  inaudibly. 

Whereat  Dollie  gave  a  great  start,  and  instantly  re- 
membered that  this  was  she  from  whom  the  watch  had 
been  stolen. 

"  Oh-h,"  she  replied,  changing  color,  "  I  recollect ! 
You — but  my  Father  is  so  sick  that  I  don't  dare  to  leave 
him  a  moment, — at  least,  I  don't  wish  to.  If  you  could 
call  in  a  day  or  two ?" 

*'  It  will  be  better  for  me  to  talk  with  you  now,  I  think,'' 
answered  Mrs.  Dedley,  with  less  embarrassment  than  be- 
fore.    "  I  shall  not  disturb  the  gentleman." 

To  the  consternation  of  both  women,  GeofTrey  Dapple 
suddenly  struggled  up  to  the  support  of  his  elbow  at  this 
remark,  and  stared  from  the  visitor  to  his  daughter  with 
startled  wildness. 

"  Who  is  this  \ — who  is  that  woman  there  ?"  he  asked, 
in  apparent  aff right. 

"  Only  Mrs.  Dedley,  Father, — the  nurse  at  Mr.  Aster's," 
was  Dollie's  hurried  explanation. — "  Mrs.  Dedley,  please 
take  a  seat  for  a  moment." 

The  old  man  still  stared  incredulously  at  both  for  a 
brief  space  ;  then  the  eager  expression  faded  slowly  from 
his  face,  and  he  sank  down  again  with  a  long  inspiration. 

Much  discomposed  by  the  incident, — for  she  now  re- 
membered that  her  father  must  have  heard  the  name  of 
their  visitor  before, — Dollie  was  turning  from  him  to 
speak  again,  when,  to  her  great  consternation,  she  found 
that  Mrs.  Dedley  had  drawn  a  chair  close  to  her  own  by 
the  bedside,  and  was  evidently  about  to  address  her  pa- 
tient. 

"  Mr.  Dapple,"  the  ex-nurse  did  indeed  say,  in  a  voice 
which  seemed  to  be  more  or  less  disguised  by  the  heavy 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  THREE  COMES  IX.        351 

veil  through  which  it  came, — u  Mr.  Dapple,  I  should  not 
have  intruded  here  while  you  were  so  ill,  if  I  hadn't  felt 
that  I  could  say  something  to  comfort  you." 

Again  the  Toyman's  eyes  opened  in  a  wild  stare,  and 
he  seemed  to  shudder  and  grow  whiter. 

"  My  Father  is  not  fit  for  the  least  excitement,  as  you 
ought  to  be  able  to  see  for  yourself  1"  cried  Dollie,  dis- 
tressed and  angry.    "  He  can't  talk  to  you,  Mrs.  Dedley." 

"  Have  patience  with  me,  my  dear  young  lady.  I  am 
sure  that  what  I  want  to  say  will  do  him  no  harm.  It  is 
something  that  I  learned  once  in  a  hospital." 

The  sick  man  opened  his  mouth,  as  though  to  speak ; 
but,  instead  of  doing  so,  placed  his  hands  convulsively 
over  his  face,  and  so  rested  perfectly  still. 

"  I  was  once  very  sick  in  Riverside  Hospital,"  began 
Mrs.  Dedley,  her  voice  alone  showing  that  she  was  affected 
by  this  indication  of  emotion,  "  and  had  a  bed  next  to  a 
poor  woman  who  was  there  with  what  was  taken  to  be  a 
fracture  of  the  skull.  We  became  acquainted  ;  and,  be- 
fore her  end  came,  she  told  me  her  name  and  her  history. 
She  was  the  wife — the  passionate,  undutiful,  unworthy 
wife,  she  said — of  a  poor  Toyman  named  Dapple " 

"  Lydia  !"  cried  the  sick  man — "  Lydia  !"  and  shook 
with  the  sob  choked  back  by  his  trembling  hands. 

Dollie,  paralyzed  by  the  words  and  their  effect,  sat 
staring  aghast  at  the  veiled  woman. 
— "  She  told  me,"  continued  the  latter,  in  an  agitated 
tone,  "  that,  in  her  self-will,  bad  temper,  jealousy  and 
selfishness,  she  had  been  a  misery  to  her  poor  husband, 
and  a  cruel  Stepmother  to  his  motherless  daughter ; — 
and  that  she  was  penitent  for  it  then — truly,  sincerely 
penitent — and  hoped  that  they  would  forgive  her  when 
she  was  dead.     She  told  me  that,  having  quarrelled  with 


352  THE   LAST   OF   THE   THREE   COMES    E*. 

her  husband  one  day,  and  wrought  him  up  to  frenzy  by 
her  abuse  of  his  daughter  and  of  something  he  was  trying 
to  invent,  he  threw  a  heavy  piece  of  clock-work  at  her  in 
his  madness !" 

"  Oh,  my  merciful  God  !"  groaned  Geoffrey  Dapple, 
burying  his  face  in  the  pillow,  and  clutching  at  the  bed 
on  which  he  lay,  "  I  did  !  I  did  !" 

"  It  only  grazed  her  hair,"  added  the  woman  hurriedly, 
"  and,  striking  the  wall,  fell  upon  a  chair ;  but  she,  in 
the  intensity  of  her  rage,  was  willing  for  him  to  believe 
that  it  had  struck  her,  and,  screaming  that  he  had  mur- 
dered her,  she  fell  like  a  log.  In  his  fright  and  horror, 
as  she  told  me,  he  ran  frantically  from  the  room  to  the 
street ;  and,  when  he  had  gone,  she  made  haste  to  drag 
the  shelf-ladder  from  the  store  to  the  room,  and  was  on 
it,  to  hide  something  which  he  valued  in  the  high  curtain, 
when,  by  a  miss-step,  she  fell  once  again ;  and  knew 
no  more  until  she  found  herself  in  the  Hospital,  and 
was  told  that  she  had  fractured  her  skull  against  a 
chair." 

"  Oh,  Father !  Father !"  screamed  Dollie,  throwing  her- 
self upon  her  knees  beside  the  bed,  and  bowing  her  head 
upon  his  arm  which  she  grasped,— -"  I  knew  it !  I  knew 
it !" 

u  Lydia !  Lydia !"  moaned  the  Toyman,  "  they  can 
not  bring  you  back  again ;  they  can  not  bring  you  back 
again  !" 

"  The  watch  once  her's  was  stolen  at  last  from  me,  to 
whom  she  gave  it,"  said  Mrs.  Dedley,  in  a  shaking  voice. 
"  and  I  heard  that  it  had  strangely  fallen  into  your  hands, 
and  have  come  to — "  here  she  fell  on  her  knees  beside 
his  daughter,  and,  casting  back  bonnet  and  veil  with  one 
convulsive  gesture,  revealed  a  face  white  as  his  own  and 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    THREE    COMES    IN.  353 

eyes  streaming  over  with  tears — "  have  come,"  she  sobbed, 
"  to  ask  my  husband's  forgiveness  !" 

"Lydia!"  shrieked  Geoffrey  Dapple,  wrenching  him- 
self upward,  as  in  a  last  struggle  with  death, — But  her 
arms  were  about  his  neck  before  he  could  say  more. — 

"I  am  your  penitent,  unworthy  wife,  Geoffrey, — com- 
ing back  at  last  when  I  heard  of  your  suffering  and  had 
guessed  its  cause.  Forgive  me,  my  husband  !  and  believe 
that  I  am  a  different  woman  from  her  who  did  indeed 
die  to  all  of  her  former  evil  self  in  that  hospital  ward !" 

Then,  if  never  before,  Miss  Dapple  came  very  near 
fainting  ;  for  she  was  weak  and  worn  from  long  watching. 
Then,  if  never  before,  did  the  old  Toyman  laugh  and  cry 
like  a  boy ;  for  younger  days  had  come  back  to  him  from 
the  dead. 

Lydia  Dapple  lived  ;  but,  in  her  resurrection,  Mrs.  Ded- 
ley  had  passed,  like  a  dissipated  shadow,  from  amongst 
the  living.  The  two  women,  though  occupying  adjacent 
beds  in  Riverside  Hospital,  were  numbered  on  the  cards 
at  their  heads  in  the  order  of  their  arrival ;  and  these 
cards  having  been  accidently  exchanged  by  a  careless 
nurse  after  the  House-Physician  had  written  his  directions 
upon  them,  and  before  the  personalities  of  the  scarcely 
conscious  patients  were  familiarly  known — the  dying  wo- 
man became  Mrs.  Dapple,  and  Mrs.  Dedley  she  who  was 
destined  to  recover. 

When  some  degree  of  composure  was  recovered  in  that 
eventful  room  of  the  Walking  Doll ;  when  Geoffrey,  still 
scarcely  credulous  of  the  Miracle,  but  perfectly  assured 
of  his  ability  to  dress  presently,  lay  looking  into  his 
wife's  loving  eyes  and  drawing  her  arm  closer  about  his 
neck ;  when  pretty  Dollie,  after  a  series  of  rather  hysteri- 
cal demonstrations,  and  a  fly-out  at  Algernon  Skeggs  for 


354  THE    LAST   OF   THE    THREE    COMES    IN. 

asking  through  the  key-hole  what  the  row  was,  had 
quieted  down  to  an  unbelieving  stare  at  the  bonnet  and 
veil  on  the  floor ; — then  she  told  them  this :  and  more. — 

That,  upon  hearing  the  dying  woman  whispered  about 
as  Xydia  Dapple,  and  comprehending  that  her  own  hus- 
band was  too  ill  to  come  to  her  ;  she,  in  her  remorse  and 
shame  for  the  distempered  nature  bringing  her  there,  had 
resolved  to  let  her  name  rest  with  the  departing  sufferer, 
and  commence  a  new  life  under  the  name  exchanged. 
That,  believing  the  Toyman  and  his  daughter  would  be 
much  the  happier  for  relief  from  her,  she  had  determined 
that  they  should  never  behold  her  in  this  life  again ;  and, 
as  the  likeliest  means  of  keeping  beyond  their  recogni- 
tion after  the  pauper  burial  of  the  real  Mrs.  Dedley,  had 
— under  that  friendless  woman's  nominal  semblance, — 
asked  and  secured  a  p]ace  as  nurse  in  the  hospital.  That, 
she  had,  after  long  and  faithful  service  there,  been  perse- 
cuted by  the  wild  young  students,  and  almost  brought  to 
disgrace  by  a  servant's  familiarity  with  her  false  name ; 
and  finally  championed  to  triumph  and  an  honorable 
place  in  his  mother's  household  by  Theodore  Danforth. 
That,  she  had  learned,  from  Miss  Lardner's  conversation, 
of  her  husband's  strange  recovery  of  the  watch  stolen 
from  her  in  the  street ;  and  that  later  revelations  had  led 
her  to  the  hope  that  she  might  make  some  atonement  to 
those  who  had  suffered  so  much  from  her  in  the  past,  by 
returning,  as  from  the  dead,  to  them  again. 

"  Often  and  often,"  she  concluded,  "  before  I  ever 
thought  of  entering,  or  being  known  to  you  as  in  life,  I 
have  passed  and  repassed  the  store ;  trusting  to  my  veil 
and  altered  form  for  disguise,  and  sometimes  even  peer- 
ing in  through  the  window." 

And  in  the  great  joy  and  sunshine  of  the  heart,  thus 


don't  you  see  how  it  was  ?  355 

coming  into  her  home,  where  such  sorrow  and  darkness 
had  been,  with  the  Last  of  the  Three  lookers-in  at  the 
window,  Dollie — happy  though  she  was — bowed  her  head 
for  a  moment  to  the  mask  of  her  dimpled  hand,  and 
gave  one  kind,  regretful,  grateful  thought  to  Doctor 
Canary. 


XLIII. 

don't  you  see  how  it  was? 

AT  about  that  hour  in  the  morning  of  New  Year's 
Day  when  the  most  stylish  young  men  issue  forth 
to  begin  their  "  Calling,''  the  melancholy  drayman, 
equipped  in  cloak,  sombrero,  eyeglasses,  and  black 
worsted  gloves,  presented  himself  at  the  door  of  Mrs. 
Haggle's  sitting-room,  and  bade  her  take  note  that  he 
was  going  out.  As  a  perfect  hurricane  of  rain  and  sleet 
was  raging  out-doors  at  the  moment,  and  Mr.  Aster's 
countenance  wore  anything  but  that  carte-de-visite  simper 
of  complacency  which  generally  intellectualizes  and 
beautifies  the  features  of  him  who  expects  to  do  several 
miles  of  the  highest  female  fashion  before  dark,  the  manly 
landlady  heard  him  with  masculine  astonishment,  and 
curtly  inquired  if  he  was  crazy  ? 

"  Do  my  eyes  roll,  Madam  ?"  questioned  he  in  re- 
turn, as  he  paused  like  a  doubtful  ghost  in  the  doorway. 
a  Have  I  got  wisps  of  straw  in  my  hair  ?" 

"  That's  you,  Aster !  JSTever  give  a  Woman  a  civil 
answer  if  you  can  help  it ;  because  she,  being  a  member 
of  the  weaker  sex  in  law,  can't  defend  herself." 


35 G  don't  you  see  how  it  was  ? 

There  was  some  of  the  old-time  Sorosism  in  this  re- 
mark ;  yet,  withal,  it  was  delivered  with  a  chastened  sad- 
ness of  tone  appealing  effectively  to  the  bitter  young 
man's  softer  nature. 

"  Be  forbearing  with  me,  Mrs.  Haggle,"  he  said,  re- 
garding her  with  apologetic  eyeglasses.  aSuch  is  the 
pressure  of  misfortune  upon  my  brain  and  heart,  that  I 
look  upon  the  tempest  outside  as  a  brother,  and  almost 
hesitate  to  qualify  its  sympathy  with  an  umbrella.  Let 
the  wind  howl,  the  thunder  roar,  and  the  lightning 
flash " 

"  It's  January,  Aster." 

"  I  mean  let  the  avalanche  roar  and  the  snow  flash," 
exclaimed  he,  unabashed,  "and  they  will  be  nothing  to 
the  elemental  warfare  now  raging  in  this — in  this 
chest." 

"  Then  you  ought  to  take  some  medicine,  instead 
of  going  out,"  observed  the  lady,  with  maternal  as- 
perity. 

Turning  stony  in  his  stare,  at  this  harrowing  miscon- 
ception, the  metaphysical  drayman  coldly  extricated  from 
under  his  left  arm  a  cotton  umbrella,  which,  from  innu- 
merable wettings  and  dryings,  had  assumed  the  shape  of 
a  stout  Dutch  female,  and,  slowly  unbuttoning  the  elastic 
girdle  about  its  frowzy  waist,  made  this  reply : 

"  We  have  seen  trouble  enough  here  within  a  week, 
Madam,  to  justify  me  in  language  much  more  figurative  ; 
but  you  have  no  imagination,  and  would  perceive  colic 
in  the  last  piteous  moanings  of  supreme  despair.  I  am 
going  to  Lardner's." 

u  That's  English,  and  I  can  understand  it,"  returned 
Mrs.  Haggle,  not  ill-nataredly.  "  I  feel  as  badly  as  you 
do,  after  the  sad  week  we've  had  of  it;  but  I  don't  see 


don't  you  see  how  it  was?  357 

the  sense  of  going  on  about  it  like  a  play-actor.     Do  go, 
though,  if  you're  going." 

Greatly  refreshed  by  this  conversation,  inasmuch  as  it 
had  made  him  much  more  miserable  than  before,  the 
platonic  husband  of  Misfortune  prowled  out  to  the  street, 
with  his  cotton  Dutch  female  bobbing  over  him  like  a 
guardian  ballet  angel  on  one  leg.  Wrapped  in  his  woes 
and  cloak  to  the  tip  of  his  nose,  and  crowned  with  de- 
spair and  his  sombrero  from  thence  upward,  he  presented 
such  a  fierce  and  foreign  aspect  to  the  few  maniac- 
"  callers"  also  battling  with  the  stormy  humors  of  the 
inclement  promenade,  that  they  took  him  alternately  for 
the  Spanish  Consul,  and  the  Mexican  minister,  and 
wondered  what  could  be  the  matter  in  Cuba,  or  Sinaloa  ? 

Quite  careless  of  comment  and  misapprehension,  and 
as  unconcerned  by  the  possibility  that  an  exceptional 
poetic  eye  might  look  upon  him  and  his  perverse  um- 
brella as  a  striking  picture  of  Doctor  Faustus  struggling 
to  withstand  the  arch  temptations  of  Mephistophiles,  he 
performed  alternate  quicksteps  and  can-cans  with  the  im- 
petuous Dutch  female  on  corners  where  the  music  of  the 
gale  waxed  most  furious ;  occasionally  chasseing  to  a 
lamp-post,  and  balancing  to  the  side  of  a  house,  with  a 
solemn  vivacity  not  to  be  described. 

The  main  wind  happening  to  blow  in  the  direction  of 
Lardner  Place,  Mr.  Aster,  finally  dragged  to  the  very 
doorsteps  of  the  Lardner  mansion  through  all  the  giddy 
mazes  of  the  intervening  ballet,  was  there  making  a 
grand  concluding  pirouette  in  supposed  saltatorial  en- 
treaty that  his  umbrella  would  come  down  and  shut  up, 
when  that  excited  old  Dutch  girl,  after  giving  him  a  last 
whirl  against  a  tree-box,  incontinently  turned  inside  out, 
and  became  an  elongated  fan  in  his  feverish  grasp.     This 


358  don't  you  see  how  it  was? 

was  mortifying ;  this  was  what  you  might  call  intolerably 
dampening ;  and  when  the  old  Alphonse  opened  the 
door,  the  bone  eyeglasses  fairly  blazed  at  him  with  all 
the  luminous  properties  of  intense  aggravation. 

"  Take  that,  and  throw  it  to  the  dogs!"  hissed  the  in- 
censed drayman,  handing  the  wreck  of  cotton  and  the 
crash  of  whalebone  to  the  as  usual  fascinated  footman. 
"  It  has  played  me  false,  like  everything  else.  I  was 
born  to  be  ruined  by  its  sex !" 

This  last  strong  expression  seemed  to  give  the  dazed 
servitor  a  vague  idea,  for  an  instant,  that  the  eccentric 
visitor  might  really  have  picked  up  some  demoralized 
old  female  on  the  end  of  a  stick ;  and,  after  closing  the 
street-door,  he  dropped  the  bedraggled  and  dislocated 
skeleton  in  some  confusion. 

"  Lardner's  in,  I  suppose  ?"  were  the  words  quickly 
rousing  him  to  reason  again. 

"  Ye-yes,  Sir.     Shall  I  t-take  your  cloak,  Mr.  Aster  ?" 

"  No  !"  said  the  dripping  drayman,  hastily.  "  My — 
but  no  matter.     Show  me  in,  boy." 

In  the  very  same  Third-parlor  where  he  had  first  seen 
Mr.  Lardner  after  the  memorable  carriage-accident,  that 
gentleman  and  his  daughter  were  now  awaiting  his  ar- 
rival, and  arose  from  their  chairs  with  more  than  usual 
quickness  to  greet  him  as  he  entered.  Lucy,  attired  in  a 
royal  purple  velvet,  presented  a  beauty  finely  heightened 
by  the  flush  of  anticipated  excitement,  while  even  her 
father's  countenance  expressed  unwonted  animation. 

"  So,  John,  you  have  come,  this  time,"  cried  Mr.  Lard- 
ner, with  a  familiarity  of  manner  characteristic  of  the 
occasion.  "  I  hope  you  begin  the  fresh  year  with  spirits 
more  promising  than  the  weather." 

" Thank  yon.     Happy  New  Years!"  was  the  sentcn- 


don't  you  see  how  it  was?  359 

tious  answer,  as,  with  a  stiff  bow  to  Uncle  and  Cousin, 
the  damp  drayman  took  a  seat  between  them  before  the 
fire,  and  immediately  trailed  several  little  rills  from  his 
wet  cloak  to  the  carpet. 

"Dear  me!  Won't  you  remove  your  cloak,  Cousin 
Jack  2"  was  the  impulsive  first  greeting  from  Lucy.  _ 

"  Certainly,"  added  her  father,  rather  dashed  by  the 
really  lamentable  aspecj  of  the  guest. 

"I  must  beg  that  you  will  not  notice  my  clothes,"  re- 
plied Aster,  with  increasing  stiffness.  "  Judge  me  by 
my  mind,  if  you  please,  and  not  by  my  outer  garments." 

"  Who  said  anything  about  judging  you,  John  ?"  asked 
Mr.  Lardner,  much  ruffied.  "  It  is  customary,  I  believe, 
to  expect  of  a  friendly  visitor  that  he  shall  not  sit  down 
in  a  parlor  with  his  hat  on ;  and  that  wet  cloak  looks  real- 
ly unfriendly  here." 

"If  you  force  me  to  explain,"  retorted  the  irritable 
drayman,  turning  savagely  upon  him,  "I  beg  leave  to 
remind  you,  Lardner,  that  a  man  with  some  gentlemanly 
pride  in  his  soul  may  have  certain  good  reasons  for  wish- 
ing to  hide  his — I  mean,  he  may  not  wish  ail  creation  to 
behold  the  rents  the  envious  Casca  made  in — certain  arti- 
cles of  his  wearing  apparel," 

"  Bless  my  heart !"  exclaimed  Lardner,  with  additional 
heat.     "Do  as  you  please  about  it,  John." 

"  Perhaps  Mr.  Aster  can  not  yet  condescend  so  far  as  to 
recognize  us  as  friends,"  remarked  Miss  Lardner,  with 
impatient  haughtiness. 

"  I  have  the  best  of  reasons  for  supposing  your  father 
to  be  a  member  of  the  i  Society  of  Friends,'  Lucy,"  re- 
sponded the  embittered  man,  with  elaborate  enunciation. 

"  I  don't  know  what  you  mean." 

"  This,"  said  Aster,  pointedly ;  "  that  I  notice  in  him 


360  don't  you  see  now  it  was? 

the  Quaker's  custom  of  addressing  comparative  strangers 
by  their  Christian  names." 

Up  sprang  Mr.  Lardner,  fiery  in  the  face,  and  appear- 
ing inclined  to  adopt  extreme  measures.  "  I  can  not  stand 
it !"  he  ejaculated,  meeting  the  deprecating  look  of  his 
daughter.  "  Here  have  yon  and  I  been  doing  this  young 
man  the  kindest  offices  for  months,  and  you  see  what  in- 
tolerable airs  he  still  assumes  !  Christian  names,  indeed  ! 
What  do  you  mean,  sir,  by  daring  to  address  me  as  you 
do?" 

To  his  unparalleled  amazement,  the  exasperated  old 
gentleman  found  himself  forced  back  into  his  chair  the 
next  moment  by  several  wet  folds  of  Spanish  cloak ;  for 
the  nervous  drayman  had  risen  upon  him  at  the  very  in- 
stant of  the  question,  and  did  not  resume  his  own  chair 
until  he  was  sure  that  no  one  else  remained  stand- 
ing. 

"  Shall  I  ring  for  Alphonze,  Pa?"  cried  Lucy,  catching 
her  breath  with  indignation. 

"  Lucy !"  exclaimed  Aster,  quickly,  in  a  tone  of  re- 
proof;  turning  to  the  daughter,  though  he  still  held  the 
father  down  by  the  knees,  "  Lucy  !  What  am  I  to  think 
of  such  treatment  as  this  ?  Was  it  for  this  that  Theodore 
Danforth  hinted  me  into  coming  here  to-day  ?" 

"  Who  ?"  cried  Mr.  Lardner,  forgetting  his  wrath  in  his 
sudden  surprise.  "  Why,  Lucy,  I  thought  you  were  the 
one  who  told  him  to  come  ?" 

"Didn't  I  tell  you  at  the  opera,  the  other  evening, 
that  you  must  come?"  asked  the  young  lady,  forget 
ting  her  indignation,  too,  at  the  sound  of  Theodore's 
name. 

Staring  from  one  to  the  other,  the  drayman's  fierce 
face   gradually   acquired    the    stonily  blank   expression 


don't  you  see  how  it  was  %  361 

which  almost  any  familiar  address  seemed  capable  of  giv- 
ing it,  and,  sinking  rigidly  back  in  his  chair,  he  passion- 
ately slapped  his  forehead. 

"  Am  I  indeed  mad  ?"  he  muttered,  shaking  his  head 
at  nothing.  "  Does  this  spinning  of  my  mind  so  frequent- 
ly, indicate  that  I  have  gone  mad?" 

iC  Nothing  but  madness  can  possibly  excuse  your  as- 
tounding conduct  with  us,  sir,  at  any  rate !"  exclaimed 
his  Uncle,  with  renewed  irritation.  "  Are  we  to  bespeak 
a  straight-jacket  for  you ;  or  can  you  attain  and  protract 
a  lucid  interval  with  enough  success  to  understand  what 
I  have  to  tell  you  respecting  the  sudden  change  in  your 
home  prospects  ?" 

The  mentally  tortured  young  man  glared  at  him  a 
moment  with  a  look  of  the  most  petrified  and  glassy  mel- 
ancholy, and  then  abruptly  extended  a  wet  hand  to  either 
of  his  sorely-tried  relatives. 

"  Forgive  me,"  he  murmured,  dismally.  "  Trouble  has 
unseated  my  intellect,  and  I  am  not  what  I  was  before 
woman's  malignity  and  scarlet  fever  robbed  me  of  a  fath- 
er and  a  son." 

"A  son  !"  echoed  Lucy,  turning  very  pale. 

"  An  adopted  son,  of  the  name  of  Goggle." 

iC  Goggle!''  re-echoed  Mr.  Lardner.  "  Why  that  was 
the  name  of  the  fellow  who  stole  the  watch  which  you 
wTere  arrested  for — " 

"Hay?" 

Both  father  and  daughter  jumped  almost  out  of  their 
chairs  as  this  indescribably  sharp  exclamation  split  their 
ears ;  but,  after  shooting  it  into  the  startled  air,  the  wet 
drayman  grew  staring  and  rigid  again,  though  with  his 
mouth  wide  open. 

"  He's  mad — no  doubt  about  it,"  panted  Mr.  Lardner, 
16 


362  don't  you  see  how  it  was  ? 

with  an  alarmed  glance  at  his  daughter.     "  He's  more  fit 
for  a  lunatic  asylum  than  for  his  father's  arms." 

"  His  morbid  pride,  Pa,"  whispered  Lucy,  flurriedly, — 
"  you  spoke  so  bluntly  about  that  shameful  arrest !" 

"  Oh !  I  beg  his  pardon  !"  said  the  gentleman,  sar- 
castically. "  I  forgot  what  a  sensitive  flower  he  -was. 
Possibly  he  may  be  too  delicate  to  hear  that  his  father's 
house  is  open  to  him  again.  I  don't  know  that  I  shall  be 
able  to  put  it  tenderly  enough  for  his  nerves." 

Snapping  his  jaws  together,  and,  with  eyes  still  set, 
leaning  toward  his  uncle,  the  half-paralyzed  drayman 
brought  one  of  his  damp  hands  down  upon  the  nearer 
avuncular  knee  with  a  stinging  slap. 

"  Tell  me  what  you  have  to  tell,  or  I  shall  foam  at  the 
mouth  in  another  five  minutes,"  he  said,  with  abrupt  and 
ominous  calmness.  "My  mind  spins;  I  would  know 
what  is  the  meaning  of  this  life  of  mine.  You  have 
spoken  of  my  Father.     What  of  him  ?" 

"  Yery  well  then  !  but  don't  slap  me  again  like  that, 
sir!"  fumed  Lucy's  papa,  peevishly  rubbing  his  knee. 
"  JSTow  stop  glaring  at  nothing,  and  hear  me.  Owing  to 
a  terrible  and  shocking  discovery  in  regard  to  a  person 
named  Danforth,  supposed  to  have  been  dead  long  ago, 
Mrs.  Aster  has  been  compelled  to  withdraw  from  your 
father's  house.  In  short,  her  former  husband,  from  whom 
she  had  neglected  to  obtain  a  divorce  because  the  papers 
had  announced  his  death,  wrote  her  a  letter  last  week — " 

"  Stop !"  interrupted  Aster,  in  frantic  haste. 

"  Why,  what  now,  man  ?" 

"  Let  us  retire  to  another  room,"  said  the  drayman, 
speaking  precipitately  behind  his  hand  ;  "  this  is  too  im- 
moral, Lardner,  to  be  told  in  a  woman's  presence.  Re- 
member your  daughter,  Sir,  remember  your  daughter  !" 


don't  you  see  how  it  was?  363 

Up  sprang  the  unreasonable  old  gentleman  to  his  feet 
again  in  a  fresh  burst  of  exasperation  ;  but  before  he 
could  utter  the  first  of  the  indignant  words  that  choked 
him,  the  parlor  door  was  flung  violently  open,  and  Al- 
phonse,  his  face  colorless  and  convulsed,  darted  madly  in 
as  though  pursued  by  a  phantom,  and,  after  one  wild  look 
at  Mr.  Aster,  crouched  gibbering  behind  his  master's  just 
vacated  chair. 

""What  under  heaven — !"  exclaimed  Mr.  Lardner; 
and  he  had  advanced  a  step  to  pull  away  the  chair,  when 
a  shriek  from  Lucy,  and  an  aerial  leap  to  the  rug  by  the 
drayman,  attracted  his  attention  to  another  quarter. 

Entering  the  door,  with  sombrero  in  hand,  bone  eye- 
glasses on  nose,  and  wet  Spanish  cloak  floating  from  man- 
ly shoulders,  was  another  Jack  Aster — the  very  type 
and  model  of  him  by  the  fire  ! 

Catching  sight  of  the  latter,  this  astounding  apparition 
stopped  suddenly  ;  a  look  of  grave  surprise  faded  from  its 
face  under  one  of  stony  amazement,  and  the  sombrero  fell 
to  the  floor; — while  the  old  Alphonse  gibbered  afresh, 
Mr.  Lardner  reeled  panic-stricken  to  the  mantel,  and  Lucy 
sat  like  one  petrified. 

"  Hay  ?"  screamed  the  apparition,  making  the  very 
chandelier  tingle. 

"Hay?"  shouted  the  drayman,  causing  the  very  win- 
dows to  vibrate. 

And,  with  one  headlong  leap  from  either  way,  the 
Man  and  His  Double  were  in  each  other's  arms ! 

"  My  long-lost  Brother  !"  howled  the  drayman. 

"  My  lost  long  Brother !"  clamored  the  apparition. 

"Brother?"  ejaculated  Mr.  Lardner,  staring  incredu- 
lously at  the  interlocked  pile  of  Spanish  cloaks,  eyeglasses, 
curly  heads,  and  moustaches. 


364:  don't  you  see  how  it  was  ? 

"  ~Broth-er  /"  repeated  Lucy,  panting  for  breath. 

"  Burrother  ?"  gasped  Alphonse,  peering  fearfully  over 
tlie  back  of  the  chair. 

Releasing  each  other  from  that  first  frantic  embrace,  the 
handsome  twin  brothers — for  such  they  were — shook 
hands  as  frantically,  and  then,  still  hand  in  hand,  faced 
father  and  daughter. 

"  In  the  name  of  all  that  is  overwhelming,  who  are  you  f  " 
asked  Mr.  Lardner,  addressing  the  apparition. 

"  John  Philip  Aster,  Uncle, — formerly  called  Philip,  but 
more  recently  Jack, — of  the  United  States  gunboat 
Chawuppa,"  was  the  answer. 

"  And  who  are  you  ?"  almost  shrieked  Lucy,  walking 
mechanically  at  the — other  one. 

"  John  Francis  Aster — formerly  of  the  volunteer  army 
and  always  called  John — now  of  the  Drayman's  Protec- 
tive Union,"  returned  he,  beginning  to  stare  around  wild- 
ly again. 

"  Drayman  I"  echoed  Philip,  with  a  start.  "  Why 
then  yours  is  the  dray  they've  been  bewildering  me 
about !" 

"  Gunboat !"  retorted  John,  with  a  stare — "  why  then 
you  must  be  the  -  loyal  sailor'!" 

"  You  came  to  this  house  and  stayed  awhile  before  you 
went  to  the  war?"  panted  Lucy,  appealing,  with  dilated 
eyes,  to  the  drayman. 

"  No,  that  was  I,"  said  the  sailor. 

"  Then  you,  Philip, — oh  dear! — came  here  that  day 
when — when  Dollie  was  in  the  closet?" 

"No  ;  that  was  myself,"  said  the  drayman. 

"While  the  utterly  bewildered  girl  stood  motionless,  with 
her  hands  pressed  to  her  eyes,  her  scarcely  less  distracted 
father  approached  the  equally  puzzled  brothers. 


don't  you  see  how  it  was  ?  365 

"  You"  he  said,  touching  the  drayman's  arm,  "  saw  my 
daughter  at  the  Opera  a  few  nights  ago  V9 

"  I  did,  you  mean,"  cried  the  sailor. 

"  Very  well.  (If  I'm  not  dreaming  !)  Then  you,  Philip, 
were  with  Lucy  and  Mr.  Pamunkey  at  Central  Park." 

"I  tell  you /was  the  one!"  exclaimed  the  drayman, 
showing  some  irascibility.         ! 

Gaping  from  one  to  the  other  in  densest  confusion,  the 
overwhelmed  Uncle  stood  stock-still  beside  his  similarly 
overcome  daughter ;  and  the  aged  Alphonse,  presuming 
upon  his  long  and  faithful  service  in  the  family,  advanced 
nervously  from  his  recent  covert,  and  ventured  to  speak. 

"It's  begging  your  pardon,  Sir,"  he  quavered,  to  the 
sailor,  "  but  you're  the  Mr.  Aster,  I  think,  who  came  to 
the  Ball  that  night,  and  went  into  Mr.  Lardner's  room  ?" 

"i"was  at  the  Ball,  dunce  !"  snapped  the  drayman. 

«  And  at  the  Dinner  Party,  too,  Sir,  of  course  ?" 

"  No  !  no !  that  was  myself,"  corrected  the  sailor,  also 
exhibiting  some  impatience,  and  staring  very  much  in  his 
brother's  fashion. 

As  Alphonse  fell  back,  smiling  in  a  dismayed  and  tru- 
ly ghastly  manner,  Mr.  Lardner  made  another  desperate 
effort  to  convince  himself  that  he  was  not  a  victim  of  night- 
mare, or  some  other  nocturnal  effect  of  indigestion.  He 
addressed  Philip : 

"  Did  you,  or  did  you  not,  carry  back  that  stolen  infant 
of  Mrs.  Aster's  ?" 

"Lardner,  you  know  /did,"  growled  Jack  Aster. 

"  Then  you,  only,"  added  Lardner,  turning  confidently 
to  the  drayman, — "  you,  only,  have  been  in  your  Father's 
house  since  you  first  left  him." 

"  I  went  there  once — "  began  the  drayman. 

u  I  went  there  once — "  interrupted  the  sailor. 


366  DON'T  YOU   8EE   HOW   IT   WAS? 

"  And  my  Stepmother — "  said  the  drayman,  raising  his 
voice. 

"  And  my  Stepmother — "  insisted  the  sailor,  sharply. 

"  Talked  me  out  of  house  and  home,"  concluded  the 
drayman,  desperately. 

"  Talked  me  out  of  house  and  home,"  shouted  the  sail- 
or, simultaneously. 

Throwing  up  his  hands  in  despair  at  this  blending  of 
the  two  in  one  again,  Mr.  Lardner  sank  into  a  chair,  ex- 
hausted, and  Lucy  tried  once  more. 

"  Cousin  John,"  she  said,  with  deprecating  tone  and 
look,  to  the  drayman,  u  didn't  you  tell  me,  after  being  at 
the  table  with  poor  Mr.  Kichardson  that  day,  that  you 
must  retire  instantly  because  you  felt  sure  he  suspected 
you  of — of  a  c-r-ime  ?" 

"Now  Cousiu  Lucy,"  broke  in  Philip,  "  you  ought  to 
remember  that  /told  you  that.  I  was  sure  he  must  have 
heard  about  that  outrageous  watch  business  of  mine." 

"  Hay  ?"  shouted  the  drayman,  recoiling  from  his  bro- 
ther, "  are  you  the  one  who  took  the  watch  I've  been 
driven  mad  about  ?" 

"  And  are  you  the  one  who  carried  away  the  babe  I've 
been  persecuted  for  ?"  cried  the  sailor,  also  recoiling. 

Here  Mr.  Lardner  resigned  his  seat  to  Lucy,  and,  after 
desiring  the  footman  to  order  the  carriage,  interfered  as  a 
peace-maker. 

"  I  am  beginning  to  see  now,"  he  said,  "  how  all  this 
distracting  confusion  has  come  about.  You  are  marve- 
lously  alike  in  personal  aspects,  certainly,  and  your  simi- 
larity of  dress,  eyeglasses,  and  tones  of  voice  is  enough 
to  make  a  man  doubt  his  own  eyes  and  ears.  Now 
that  you  are  side  by  side,  there  is  a  slight  difference — 
John,  I  think,  is  the  least  bit  taller,  and  his  expression 


don't  you  see  how  it  was?  367 

of  face  the  more — stern."  (He  was  actually  tempted  to 
say  "  stupid.")  "  But  if  you,  Philip,  will  just  give  us  a 
brief  account  of  yourself  for  the  last  three  months,  we 
may  untangle  the  knot  more  readily. — Suppose  we  all 
take  chairs,  though,  first." 

The  latter  proposition  being  practically  acceded  to, — 
the  damp  drayman  drawing  Iris  chair  toward  that  of  the 
still  overpowered  Lucy,  and  the  moist  sailor  his  toward 
that  of  his  Uncle — Philip  told  his  story. 

"  On  the  very  day  of  my  coming  ashore,"  said  he,  "  I 
happened  to  be  one  of  a  crowd  gathered  around  the 
wagon  of  a  tooth-powder  mountebank  in  Chatham 
Square.  While  I  was  listening  with  the  rest  to  the 
quack's  doggerel  address,  some  one  called  out  a  warning 
against  pickpockets,  and,  in  almost  the  same  instant,  a 
strange-looking  old  man  near  me  missed  his  watch,  and 
was  prompted  by  some  scamp  at  his  elbow  to  accuse  me 
of  the  theft !  This  he  did,  and  with  such  nervous  vio- 
lence, that  I,  to  show  him  all  I  carried  in  my  pocket, 
drew  out  my  handkerchief,  and,  to  my  unspeakable  hor- 
ror, the  watch  with  it !  How  it  ever  came  there,  Heaven 
only  knows.  Probably  the  real  thief  put  it  there  to  es- 
cape detection  by  a  notorious  detective  in  the  crowd. 
At  any  rate,  I  was  as  innocent  as  innocence  itself.  Of 
course  I  was  arrested,  taken  before  a  Police  Justice — 
and  couldn't  clear  myself. — How  could  I  ? — What  was 
worse,  the  notorious  detective  I  have  mentioned  was  pre- 
sent, and  revealed  my  name.  How  he  found  it  out  I 
don't  know  yet ;  but  he  asked  me  before  the  justice  if  it 
was  not  mine,  and  I  was  too  proud  to  deny  it.  Seeing 
myself  helpless,  as  it  were,  to  escape  imprisonment  for  a 
crime  of  which  I  was  not  guilty,  I — well,  I  d id  escape  at 
once ;  that's  the  whole  of  it.     Punning  from  mistaken 


368  don't  you  see  how  it  was  ? 

justice,  I  managed  to  reach  a  sailor's  boarding- house  in 
Water  Street ;  but  had  scarcely  got  indoors  when  detec- 
tive Stalker  was  there,  too.  Instead  of  arresting  me, 
however,  he  mysteriously  turned  friend,  and  hinted  that, 
by  a  little  smart  disguising,  I  might  elude  recapture  until 
something  should  turn  up  in  my  favor.  Having  a  big 
hat  and  cloak  among  my  traps,  (such  as  John  and  I  had 
bought  for  ourselves  just  before  leaving  home  and  when 
thinking  of  going  "West,)  I  asked  Stalker  how  they 
would  do ;  and  he  said.  '  Just  the  things.'  He  also  ad- 
vised the  cheap  eyeglasses — which  really  contain  window- 
glass  only — and  so  I  came  to  be  dressed  in  my  present 
style.  At  that  time  I  was  not  aware  of  my  father's  resi- 
dence in  this  city  ;  until  to-day  I  have  been  entirely  igno- 
rant of  the  whereabouts  of  my  brother ;  even  of  his  very 
existence.  I  came  here  to  the  dinner-party,  Uncle  ;  be- 
cause I  had  seen  a  '  letter '  advertised  as  remaining  in 
the  Post  Office  for  '  John  Aster,'  and,  upon  obtaining  it, 
had  found,  to  my  unbounded  astonishment,  that  it  was  an 
invitation  (for  me,  as  I  thought,)  from  Cousin  Lucy.  I 
came,  and  was  shocked  at  your  matter-of-fact  way  of  re- 
ceiving me ;  not  knowing,  of  course,  that  I  was  taken  for 
one  not  quite  such  a  stranger.  You  know  how  I  left  the 
house  again  that  day,  Cousin  Lucy  1  After  that  I  paid  a 
visit  to  Dollie  at  her  Father's  store ;  and,  when  she  had 
thrown  me  into  a  perfectly  reckless  state  of  mind  by  the 
most  bewildering  hints  about  drays,  stolen  infants,  and  I 
don't  know  what  else,  Mr.  Dapple  came  suddenly  upon 
us,  and  I  then  realized,  for  the  first  time,  that  he  was  the 
old  man  of  that  name  who  had  lost  the  watch  so  strangely 
found  upon  me.  He  was  at  me  at  once  about  it  in  an  as- 
tonishingly violent  manner,  and  I  fairly  ran  for  it  again. 
Subsequently  I  learned  from  Stalker  where  my  father 


don't  you  see  now  it  was?  369 

lived,  and  went  there,  and  was  spurned  by  my  Father, 
and  talked  into  the  street  by  his  wife.  I  saw  Cousin 
Lucy  in  a  box  at  the  Opera  the  other  evening,  introduced 
myself,  and  was  invited  to  come  here  to-day ;  but  even 
some  of  her  remarks  were  so  incomprehensible  to  me 
that  I  was  fairly  frightened  away  before  my  time.  I 
may  say  to  you  now,  Uncle  and  Cousin  both,  that  the  in- 
justice and  bewilderment  I  have  suffered  during  the  last 
three  months  should  be  credited  for  such  signs  of  demoral- 
ization as  you  may  have  reprobated  in  my  conduct  here 
and  elsewhere.  Cruelly  forced  to  go  about  in  disguise, 
rebuffed  and  hopelessly  puzzled  at  every  friendly  point, 
and  obliged  to  live  wretchedly  in  obscure  quarters,  my 
old  pride  has  been  maddened  into  a  kind  of  despairing 
audacity,  the  latest  offence  of  which,  in  the  opera-box, 
will  be  pardoned,  I  hope,  by  my  Cousin  Lucy." 

This  story,  throwing  satisfactory  light  as  it  did  on  se- 
veral hitherto  perplexing  Asterial  phenomena,  was  heard, 
with  many  starts  and  interchanged  glances,  by  listeners 
deeply  interested ;  and,  at  its  conclusion,  the  drayman 
was  caught  in  the  act  of  attempting  a  strange  guttural 
sound,  which,  but  for  his  want  of  practice,  might  have 
passed  for  a  laugh. 

Then  Mr.  Larduer  told  the  equally  curious  story  which 
Philip's  arrival  had  so  summarily  interrupted.  Passing 
lightly  over  the  preluding  diplomacy  practiced  by  Lucy 
and  himself  on  behalf  of  their  two  present  guests  in  one, 
he  briefly  described  the  amazing  events  recently  transpir- 
ing in  Jenkins  Place,  his  own  last  visit  there,  the  unpre- 
cedented affidavit  of  Mr.  Goggle,  the  elder  Aster's  curi- 
ous electrification  into  comparative  health  by  the  shock 
of  calamity,  and  his  final  consent  to  a  reconciliation  with 
his  sons. 

16* 


370  don't  you  see  how  it  was? 

"  Expecting  to  see  John,  only,  here  to-day,"  said  Mr. 
Lardner,  "  I  had  determined  that,  after  hearing  all  this, 
he  should  go  immediately  with  me  in  the  carriage  to  his 
Father,  and  commence  the  New  Year  by  a  restoration  to 
the  affection  and  bounty  of  his  natural  home.  Now  that 
both  of  you  have  come  together  in  this  astonishing  man- 
ner, it  seems  to  me  better  that  I  should  precede  you  by  a 
few  minutes,  and  prepare  your  Father  for  your  arrival  in 
company.  As  the  carriage  is  ready,  I  will  go  at  once, 
leaving  you  to  follow  me  thither  in  half  an  hour  or  so." 

With  which  concise  peroration,  and  a  general  wishing 
of  Happy  New  Year  all  around,  the  officious  dealer  in 
bides  took  temporary  leave  of  the  twin-brothers  and  his 
daughter,  and  bustled  away  on  his  congenial  mission. 

Relieved  of  his  presence,  the  three  young  people  might 
have  found  ample  subject  for  a  most  vivacious  conversa- 
tion during  the  alloted  half-hour,  and  Philip  and  his 
lovely  cousin  did  indeed  discuss  the  wonders  of  the  situa- 
tion with  marked  animation ;  but  the  drayman,  though 
not  quite  so  stony  and  bolt-upright  as  before,  still  main- 
tained a  chilling  taciturnity,  and  occasionally  startled  the 
others  by  hoarsely  laughing  to  himself  in  a  very  depress- 
ing manner. 

"  By  the  way,  Jack,"  Philip  said  at  last,  hoping  to  per- 
suade him  into  something  like  sociality,  "  as  the  murder 
seems  to  be  out  about  that  incomprehensible  watch,  I 
may  as  well  take  off  these  ridiculous  eyeglasses  for  good," 
and,  at  the  word,  he  removed  those  reflective  ornaments 
from  his  nose. 

Then  was  seen  the  most  notable  difference  between  the 
twi n -brothers  ;  fur,  being  thus  relieved  of  their  disguise, 
the  ex-sailor's  winking  black  e}Tes  at  once  characterized 
his  whole  face  with  an  expression  much  milder  than  sat 


don't  tou  see  how  it  was?  371 

enthroned  still  upon  the  whole  saturnine  countenance  of 
the  sourer  drayman. 

"  I'd  take  off  the  cloak,  too,  Cousin  Lucy,"  added 
Philip,  with  an  embarrassed  laugh  ;  "  but  the  fact  is,  my 
solitary  dress-suit  has  sustained  certain  humiliating  disas- 
ters since  that  day  of  the  dinner-party." 

It  may  be  remarked  that,  from  the  moment  when  the 
separate  identities  of  the  young  men  were  clearly  defined, 
Miss  Lardner  had  regarded  John  Francis  Aster  with  a 
certain  startled  shyness  ;  which  increased  to  such  an  ex- 
tent after  John  Philip's  confession,  that,  since  her  father's 
departure,  she  had  seemed  fairly  afraid  to  even  look  at 
him.  Now,  though,  that  Philip  had  opened  a  way  for 
her,  she  blushed  at  the  stern  drayman  with  what  courage 
she  could  muster,  and  asked  if  he  could  not  take  off  his 
eyeglasses,  too  ? 

"  I  can  not,  Miss  Lardner,"  was  his  freezing  response. 
"  They  are  part  of  my  natural  misfortunes  ;  and  were  I 
to  remove  them,  your  face  would  at  once  appear  to  me 
like  a  piece  of  chalk  with  three  holes  in  it,  and  my 
brother's  head  like  a  weak  cabbage  with  a  black  cloth  on 
top  of  it.  1  pray  you  two  to  go  on,  and  not  mind 
me." 

There  was  a  tone  of  fresh  injury  in  this,  and  the  com- 
parison of  the  "weak  cabbage  "  had  a  sound  of  fraternal 
sarcasm  hard  to  bear ;  but  Lucy,  with  a  quick  and  not 
seriously  unpleased  discernment  of  the  real  inspiration  of 
such  crustiness,  made  haste  to  change  the  subject  before 
more  could  be  said  in  that  vein. 

"  Cousin  Jack,"  said  she,  with  a  bright  air  of  mock- 
reproof,  "  you  deserve  every  bit  that  you've  suffered,  for 
not  giving  some  explanation  of  yourself  that  day  when 
poor  Dollie  Dapple  came  out  of  the  closet  up-stairs.      If 


372  don't  you  see  how  it  was? 

you  had  never  seen  her  before,  how  could  you  dare  to — 
do  what  you  did  to  her " 

"  Hay  ?"  exclaimed  Philip,  starting  with  electrical  sud- 
denness, and  fixing  a  loot  of  keen  distrust  upon  his 
brother. 

"  O,  dear  ! — I  mean — please  explain  it  to  him,  John  !" 
cried  she,  in  dismay. 

"  Being  as  much  in  the  dark  about  everything  as  your- 
self, Lucy  Lardner,"  observed  the  drayman,  aggravated 
by  the  fact  that  his  brother's  exclamation  had  made  him 
jump  in  an  undignified  manner ;  "  I  merely  placed  a 
brief  kiss  upon  the  young  woman's  brow." 

"  Kissed  my  Dollie !"  ejaculated  Philip,  bouncing  from 
his  chair. 

"  One  small  one,"  said  Jack  Aster,  laconically. 

"  Cousin  Lucy,"  observed  the  now  agitated  sailor  twin, 
breathing  short,  and  hurriedly  picking  his  sombrero  from 
the  floor,  "  it  occurs  to  me  that  I  had  better  see  my  father 
a  little  before  the  time  mentioned  by  your  father,  as  I 
have  not  been  expected  there  like  John.  I'd  better  have 
my  scene  over  first.  With  your  permission  I'll  take  a 
horse  car  at  once. — Not  an  instant  to  lose. — Should  have 
thought  of  it  before.  An  revoirP  And  before  the  dis- 
concerted girl  could  remonstrate  he  was  hastening  to  the 
street. 

Lucy,  from  a  brief,  distressed  look  at  the  door  through 
which  he  had  so  abruptly  retreated,  turned  her  gaze  to 
the  unmoved  drayman  before  the  fire,  and,  after  waiting 
in  vain  for  him  to  speak  first,  expressed  her  own  concern 
for  what  had  happened. 

"  I  am  so  sorry  for  this  !"  she  disconsolately  said.  "  It 
was  so  thoughtless  in  me." 

"  Don't  mind  the  passionate  boy,  my  girl,"  muttered 


don't  you  see  how  it  was  ?  373 

Jack  Aster,  moodily.  u  Or  if  you  must  miud  him,"  he 
added,  with  sullen  earnestness,  "  wait  until  you  can  do  so 
without  tearing  another  man's  heart  to  pieces  !" 

Lucy  inexplicably  smiled  at  this  ;  even  blushed  a  little ; 
and  drew  her  chair  a  short  distance  farther  away  from 
the  intense  young  man. 

"  Now  that  I  know  it  was  he  whom  we  first  knew, 
and  who  was  here  to  dine,  and  saw  me  at  the  Opera,"  she 
said,  scarcely  knowing  what  else  to  say,  "  I  feel  almost 
better  acquainted  with  him  than  with  you." 

Turning  himself,  chair  and  all,  to  get  a  better  view  of 
her  face,  the  drayman  leaned  sharply  toward  her  with  a 
dark  look  upon  his  own  countenance. 

6i  At  dinner  and  the  opera  ?"  growled  he.  "  Can  it  be 
that  he  has  ever  dared  to  exact  more  than  a  distant 
cousin's  limited  privilege  ?     Hay,  girl  ?" 

"  No,  Sir  !  He  has  not  half  of  your  impudence  !"  re- 
plied Lucy,  flushing,  and  drawing  still  farther  away. 
"  The  utmost  liberty  he  ever  took,  Sir,  was  to  squeeze — " 

«  Hay  ?" 
— "  Dear  me  ! — You'll  drive  me  wild — He  only  squeezed 
my  hand,  I  say,  as  he  told  me  of  his  alarm  at  what  Mr. 
Richardson  had  said." 

44  That's  enough  !"  thundered  the  drayman,  rising  from 
his  chair  with  fierce  precipitation,  "  that's  enough  !  It 
occurs  to  me  that  I  had  better  fly  to  my  Father's  at  once, 
to  see  that  this  stripling  does  not  undermine  me  there, 
too.     This  indeed  is  bitterness.     I  go." 

Yes  !  In  the  fell  jealousy  and  suspicion  of  a  fine  na- 
ture rasped  by  adversity,  he  went  scowling  away  through 
the  rain  and  sleet,  leaving  the  thoroughly  discouraged  girl 
to  wish  she  had  never  been  born.  Man  is  a  strange  being, 
and  it  is  curious  that  no  author  ever  remarked  it  before. 


374  LOVE   PAYS   FOE  ALL. 


XLIY. 

LOYE   PAYS   FOR   ALL. 

IF  the  buckskin  horse,  "  Mercutio,"  has  been  kept  in 
obscurity  during  the  latter  portions  of  this  history, 
the  sound  critic  will  understand  that  the  historian's  pur- 
pose in  such  obscuration  has  been  artistic,  or  devised 
with  a  view  to  the  more  brilliant  farewell  appearance  of 
the  vivacious  steed  in  question.  As  the  Outcast  of  in- 
tense character,  who,  through  four  and  three-quarter  acts 
of  the  play,  has  scuffled,  stamped,  and  muttered  in  the 
distance,  in  shabby  attire,  suddenly  turns-up  prancing  in 
the  concluding  tableau  of  the  Fifth,  with  such  improve- 
ments of  costume  and  disposition  that  nothing  but  cal- 
cium light  can  do  them  justice  ;  so  this  buckskin  Ham- 
bletonian,  having  heretofore  deluded  everybody  but  the 
author  into  believing  him  fit  only  for  the  dray,  now 
bursts  upon  the  astonished  vision  in  all  the  glory  and 
dignity  of  a  gentleman's  Carriage-horse. 

A  day  in  the  middle  of  January  saw  him  deporting  in 
a  most  springy  manner,  within  the  dainty  shafts  of  a  very 
glossy,  pink-lined  coupe,  before  the  familiar  door  of  the 
house  in  Dame  Street ;  a  gorgeous  silver-mo  anted  harness 
frescoing  him  into  such  a  series  of  fluted  buckskin  pan- 
els as  only  a  silver-handled  whip  could  give  the  finishing 
touches  to,  and  a  colored  coachman,  in  buff  livery  with 
plate  buttons,  sitting  up  behind  to  teach  him  all  the  fash- 
ionable equine  dances.  Thus  beautifully  come  into  his 
property  and  rightful  rank  at  last, — though  still  wearing 


LOYE   PAYS   FOR  ALL.  375 

reduced  bandages  on  two  ankles  as  certificates  of  speed — 
this  buckskin  horse  did  so  aristocratically  champ  his  bit, 
and  clatter  an  exact  imitation  of  a  furious  runaway  on  the 
cobble  stones  beneath  him,  that  Mrs.  Haggle,  glancing 
out  of  her  parlor  window  as  she  stood  talking  with  his 
master,  declared  that  he  looked  and  acted  as  though  he 
knew  nothing  of  a  dray,  save  as  some  coarse,  imaginary, 
hideous  sort  of  thing,  used  exclusively  by  the  very  lowest 
classes. 

Two  weeks  of  prosperity  had  wrought  almost  as  great 
an  external  change  in  Jack  Aster  himself :  for  on  this  day 
his  Spanish  cloak  was  nowhere  to  be  seen  ;  he  wore  a  but- 
toned furzy  blue  coat  reaching  but  a  few  inches  below  his 
hips,  and  his  nether  garments  of  similar  material  were  of 
a  strained  tightness  to  suggest  that  the  wearer  was  about 
to  undergo  bleeding  of  the  feet  for  some  abstruse  pedicular 
disorder.  In  fact,  without  the  once-inseparable  Spanish 
wrapper,  and  in  this  opposite  extreme  of  costume,  Mr. 
Aster  certainly  had  the  lank,  anatomical  effect  of  a  tall 
fountain  with  the  water  cut  off;  yet  the  eyeglasses  and 
foreign  expression  of  countenance  remained  to  shed  a  re- 
proving gloom  upon  whomsoever  should  presume  to  smile 
at  the  remaining  transformation,  and  he  held  in  his  right 
hand  the  same  enormous  sombrero  which  had  so  long 
served  him  in  the  place,  of  intellect  with  all  his  female 
acquaintances. 

u  That  conceited  limb  of  a  horse  puts  on  as  many  airs 
as  any  Saratoga  hotel-clerk,"  observed  Mrs.  Haggle,  u  and 
I  suppose  that  homely  dog,  too,  will  be  taking  himself 
for  a  greyhound  by  the  time  he's  been  with  you  for  an- 
other fortnight." 

Then  was  it  observable,  that  a  fancy  leather  thong  in 
the  ex-drayman's  left  hand  led  to  a  chain-collar  on  the 


376  LOVE   PAYS    TOR   ALL. 

neck  of  a  dingy-white  cur,  whose  broad,  impassible  coun- 
tenance, and  stumpy  ears  and  tail,  were  marvels  of  econ- 
omized expression. 

"Mercutio  is  but  a  horse,"  returned  Aster,  with  much 
gloom  of  sentiment,  "and  no  longer  follows  straw-beds 
when  oats  have  become  his  portion ;  this  dog  is  only  a 
bone-setter,  and  will  forget  bones  when  accustomed  to 
'  point '  beefsteak  ;  but  I'm  a  Man,  Madam, — a  Man,  by 
heavens ! — and,  as  I've  told  you  already,  can  never  drop 
from  grateful  remembrance  the  friends  of  my  darker  days. 
I've  told  you  my  main  purpose  in  calling  here  this  after- 
noon— to  offer  you  the  position  of  Housekeeper  to  Philip 
and  myself  while  our  Father  is  abroad.  In  another  fort- 
night the  place  will  be  ready  for  you." 

"  Do  I  understand,  Aster,  that  the  position  would  im- 
pose no  restrictions  upon  me  on  the  ground  of  my  sex  ?" 
asked  the  landlady,  clasping  her  hands  behind  her,  and 
chewing  a  wisp  of  broom;  "  do  I  understand  that  I  shall 
have  all  the  rights  of  both  sexes?" 

"  Every  human  right  compatible  with  a  desire  for  oc- 
casional silence  and  an  eternal  abjuration  of  hash  on  the 
part  of  my  brother  and  self,"  said  Mr.  Aster,  persuad- 
ingly.  "  You  may  shave  if  you  wish  to,  practice  on  a 
velocipede,  and  sing  baritone.  I  wTant  you  with  us  on 
any  terms,  Mrs.  Haggle ;  for  I  cannot  forget  your  kind- 
ness to  poor  little  Goggle.  I've  ordered  a  monument  for 
him, — a  broken  pillar,  shaped  like  a  half-burnt  segar, 
with  a  fire-cap  carved  on  the  side." 

Saying  this,  the  ex-drayman  became  tremulous  in  his 
tone,  and,  after  Mrs.  Haggle  had  promised  to  consider 
his  proposition,  beat  a  hasty  retreat  to  the  street  with 
Daddy,  where  an  assumption  of  the  sombrero  gave  him 
a  most  parasol-like  appearance. 


LOVE    PAYS    FOR    ALL.  377 

"  To  Lardner  Place,"  he  said  to  the  coachman ;  and, 
with  a  tragic  farewell  wave  of  the  hand  toward  the  par- 
lor-window, he  stepped  into  the  coupe  with  the  dog,  and 
the  buckskin  horse  started  off  in  style. 

The  progress  of  the  equipage  across  town  was  like  that 
of  some  very  heavy  engine  on  cog-wiieels ;  for  "  Mercu- 
tio,"  like  many  other  new  comers  into  wealth  and  fashion, 
rather  overdid  the  style  of  the  period,  and  alternated 
each  spasmodic  little  skip  forward  with  such  a  long  in- 
terval of  unprogressive  clatter-dancing  that  the  journey 
bade  fair  to  require  about  a  week.  Having  noticed  that 
high-mettled  prancers  of  the  ton  generally  strove  to  con- 
vey to  all  observers  the  impression  that  they  were  only  re- 
fraining from  running  away  until  they  could  be  sure  of  tak- 
ing off  nothing  but  aristocratic  wheels  in  their  flight,  and 
so  getting  brilliantly  into  the  papers,  this  buckskin  parve- 
nu simulated  the  most  inordinate  terror  of  every  earthly 
sight  and  sound  which  had  been  daily  familiar  to  him 
for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and  stopped  so  often  to 
chatter  a  panic  with  his  hoofs,  that  the  coupe  was  like  a 
yacht  struggling  against  a  head-gale.  As  in  former  times, 
too,  his  wall-eye  was  continually  deluding  him  into  the  be- 
lief that  the  next  corner  on  that  side  was  somewhere  about 
the  middle  of  the  nearest  brown-stone  front ;  to  which 
delusion  he  always  yielded  at  that  particular  moment 
when  the  unhappy  coachman  fondly  supposed  that  he 
had  concluded  to  dance  in  a  straight  line  for  at  least  an- 
other half-mile.  As  Mr.  Aster  aided  these  high-strung 
proceedings  by  shaking  his  fist  at  the  showy  animal  out 
of  one  side  of  the  carriage,  while  Daddy,  erect  on  his 
hind  legs,  barked  incessantly  from  the  other,  it  may  be 
imagined  that  the  pageant  was  an  unspeakable  delight  to 
the  populace,  many  of  whose  younger  members  gave  au- 


378  LOVE   PAYS   FOE  ALL. 

dible  expression  to  the  playful  fancy,  that  if  the  turn-ont 
didn't  reach  the  Pound  before  sunset,  the  swell  inside 
wouldn't  get  his  fifty  cents  for  his  terrier. 

Such  being  the  harrowing  incidents  of  Mr.  Aster's  ride 
to  Lardner  Place,  it  was  not  surprising  that,  when  he 
finally  pulled  the  bell  of  the  Lardner  mansion,  it  was  with 
the  ferocious  violence  of  some  aggravated  bandit  jerking 
his  poniard  from  the  wound  in  an  exasperating  traveler's 
breast. 

The  old  footman,  who  answered  the  summons  as  usual, 
began  a  deprecatory  smile  of  welcome  on  catching  first 
sight  of  the  big  hat ;  but,  on  beholding  the  cur  still  led 
by  the  ex-drayman,  all  his  old  bewilderment  of  aspect  re- 
turned, and  he  could  only  conduct  the  scowling  guest  to 
the  parlor,  much  as  he  might  have  preceded  an  eccentric 
ghost  to  some  particular  tomb  in  which  it  had  desired  to 
rest  for  the  night. 

Lucy,  as  by  apparent  preparation  for  the  call,  was 
there  to  receive  her  Cousin,  in  her  most  becoming  attire, 
and  advanced  toward  the  doorway  to  meet  him  with  a 
charming  fiush  of  welcome  on  her  cheeks.  This  last, 
however,  gave  way  to  the  momentary  pallor  of  star- 
tled amazement,  when  the  tightly-dressed  young  man, 
after  briefly  greeting  her,  let  the  dog  loose  in  the 
room. 

"  Good  gracious  !  what's  that  ?"  she  cried,  with  a  fright- 
ened motion  toward  stepping  upon  the  sofa.  "AVho 
brought  the  awful  creature  here  ?" 

"  Don't  be  alarmed,  child,"  said  Aster,  smiling  grimly 
at  her  trepidation.  "He  will  not  hurt  you.  He's  per- 
fectly gentle  to  everything  but  cats." 

"  But  what  made  you  bring  him  here  ?"  exclaimed  the 
young  lady,  still  nervously  excited. 


LOTE   PAYS    FOR   ALL.  379 

"  Because,"  returned  Mr.  Aster,  solemnly, — "  because  he 
was  the  father  of  my  adopted  son,  now  no  more." 

At  this  astonishing  explanation,  Miss  Lardner  dropped 
into  a  chair  and  stared  with  point-blank  wonder  at  both 
man  and  dog. 

"  The — the  father  of —  ?"  there  she  stopped. 

"  That  dog,"  resumed  the  ex-drayman,  also  taking  a 
chair,  "  bears  the  sacred  name  of  Daddy,  because  he  loved 
and  protected  my  poor  street-boy,  whose  earthly  father 
was  the  real  brute." 

If  this  farther  elucidation  was  not  quite  so  perspicuous 
as  it  might  have  been,  the  young  lady  understood  enough 
from  it  to  perceive  that  her  Cousin's  peculiarity  in  this 
instance  was  influenced  by  a  civilized  human  feeling,  and 
she  at  once  -decided  to  be  amiable  again.  Daddy,  as 
though  instinctively  aware  of  this  change  in  his  favor, 
thereupon  discontinued  a  minute  inspection  of  each  arti- 
cle of  furniture  which  he  had  promptly  set-about  upon 
entering  the  parlor;  and,  establishing  himself  bolt-up- 
right upon  the  hearth-rug  immediately  before  the  two 
cousins,  regarded  them  with  a  scholastic  gravity  of  visage 
saying  plainly :  "  I  will  now  hear  you  your  lessons,  and 
hope  you  may  know  them." 

"  That  dog,"  pursued  Aster,  with  some  bitterness  in  his 
tone,  "  was  truer  to  my  poor  boy  than  many  an  earthly 
father  is  to  his  own  offspring.  Did  he  turn  against  the 
neglected  outcast  to  please  any  Stepmother  1  No  !  Lucy, 
can  you  and  I  look  into  our  hearts  and  say  that  our  own 
earthly  fathers  have  been  such  parents  to  us  that  we  have 
no  reason  to  prefer  this  dog  ?" 

Detecting  in  this  question  a  certain  vague  reflection 
upon  Tier  earthly  father,  Miss  Lardner's  amiability  les- 
sened for  an  instant. 


380  LOVE    PAYS    FOR    ALL. 

"  Please  confine  your  doggy  comparisons  to  your  own 
family,  sir !"  she  replied,  resentfully.  But  noticing  the 
spiritless  gleam  of  the  eyeglasses  as  they  redly  reflected 
the  fire  in  the  grate,  she  resumed  her  more  charitable 
mood,  and  added  sympathetically  :  "  I'm  afraid  you  have 
not  found  your  restored  home  all  that  it  might  be,  Cousin 
John?" 

"  It  might  be  worse." 

"Oh!" 

"  I  say  it  might  be  worse,"  reiterated  Mr.  Aster,  obsti- 
nately ;  "  for  it  might  have  a  Stepmother  in  it.  As  it  is, 
Philip  and  I  have  been  received  back  by  our  Father  like 
a  couple  of  bad  greenbacks,  which  might  seriously  com- 
promise him  if  any  farther  attempts  were  made  to  pass 
them  singly,  and  which  are  now  to  be  padded  on  both 
sides  with  good  money  and  finally  got  rid  of  in  that  way. 
We  have  our  way  in  his  bank  account,  and  can  do  what 
we  choose  about  the  house ;  but  all  his  thoughts  are  bent 
upon  the  quick  driving  through  of  certain  legal  proceed- 
ings of  a  revolting  character,  and  all  his  hope  is  to  get  off 
to  Europe  when  they  shall  have  been  finished.  All  de- 
vices are  useless  to  make  him  take  a  proper  interest  even 
in  my  conversation,  and  when  I  said  to  him  at  breakfast 
yesterday,  '  Why  do  you  not  strive  to  forget  Adelaide, 
sir,  and  concentrate  all  your  affection  and  means  on  the 
two  Sons  who  have  at  length  returned  to  take  charge  of 
you  V  he  betrayed  symptoms  of  making  a  pass  at  me  with 
the  water-decanter." 

"  You  should  be  forbearing  with  him,"  urged  Lucy : 
"  you  should  remember  that  he  has  suffered,  is  suffering, 
much." 

"  And  have  not  I  suffered,  too  ?"  asked  he,  plaintively, 
with  a  deeply  injured  expression  of  countenance.     "  See 


LOVE   PAYS   FOR   ALL.  381 

how  my  pride  has  been  maddened,  my  mind  made  to 
spin,  and  my  heart  lacerated. — But  enough  of  this. 
You  got  my  letter  t" 

"  Yes."     And  Lucy  looked  shyly  to  the  floor. 

"With  one  rasping  scrape  over  the  carpet,  his  chair 
was  close  beside  her's,  and,  with  another  unceremo- 
nious movement,  he  possessed  himself  of  her  right 
hand. 

"  In  that  letter,"  continued  he,  in  a  kind  of  pathetic 
growl,  "  I  confessed  to  you  that  I  was  not  yet  happy ; 
that  I  had  not  found  in  my  long-sequestrated  home  all 
the  hot,  self-sacrificing  affection  it  was  my  right,  as  a 
restored  Son,  to  expect ;  and,  that  my  spirit  still  felt  a 
gloom  calculated  to  almost  drive  me  forth  again  as  a 
wanderer." 

"  You  wrote  all  that,"  assented  Lucy,  softly. 

"  And  I  meant  it,  girl,  I  meant  it.  Mine  is  a  nature 
that  must  and  will  have  affection ;  or,  in  time,  it  may  be 
soured  against  all  the  world.  In  the  masquerade  of  the 
last  four  or  five  years,  all  that  kept  me  reconciled  to 
mankind  was  the  faithful  affection  of  a  poor  little,  red- 
headed waif  from  the  streets,  whom  I  made  my  adopted 
son.  He  is  dead,  alas  !  and  now,  with  all  the  change  in 
my  condition  of  life,  I  am  a  lonely,  neglected,  unfortu- 
nate, motherless  man." 

"  I'm  sure  your  brother  must  love  you  very  dearly," 
murmured  Lucy,  still  gazing  downward. 

"  He  loves  another,"  said  Aster,  shortly. 

"  Another — What  do  you  mean,  Cousin  John  ?" 

u  I  mean  that  he  loves  another  woman,"  rejoined  he, 
irritably,  but  squeezing  her  hand.  "Beside,  he's  an 
equal,  and  the  love  of  an  equal  can  never  satisfy  a  heart 
like  mine.     I  require  the  affection  of  one  who  would  look 


382  LOVE   PAYS   FOR  ALL. 

up  to  me,  and  do  my  behests.  What  I  yearn  for  now, 
child,  is  a  woman's  love." 

The  abrupt  declaration  brought  the  rich  color  to  his 
cousin's  lovely  face  once  more,  and  she  even  made 
a  fluttering  effort  to  withdraw  her  hand  from  his 
grasp. 

"  Can  you  not  win  even  that — in  time  ?"  she  timidly 
asked,  almost  in  a  whisper. 

"  JSot  if  I  must  sacrifice  my  independence  of  spirit 
for  it,"  was  the  fierce  answer ;  "  not  if  I  must  sue  like  a 
lovesick  boy !" 

"No  true  woman  would  ask  that  of  you,"  cried  Lucy, 
looking  up  into  his  face  at  last  with  the  heroic  boldness 
of  the  sentiment ;  "  no  true  woman  ever  does  wish  to  see 
the  man  to  whom  she  has  given  all  her  nature's  best  love 
and  reverence  humbling  himself  in  any  species  of  abase- 
ment before  her,  even  to  hear  her  speak  that  love.  Once 
yielding  to  him  the  homage  of  an  untrammelled  heart, 
she  sees  in  him  something  higher,  stronger,  nobler  than 
herself.  Thenceforth  she  looks  up  to  him  as  her  Master, 
her  hero,  her  protector,  and  would  have  him  assert  all 
the  superiority  those  titles  imply." 

"  And  what,"  cried  Aster,  passionately ;  seeming  to 
take  fire  at  her  sudden  enthusiasm  ; — "  what  if  he,  in  his 
uncontrollable  independence  of  spirit,  avowed  to  her  that 
he  was  a  ritualist,  a  homoeopathist,  and  a  democrat  ?" 

"  Then,"  responded  the  girl,  lowering  her  voice  again 
until  it  was  but  a  murmur,  "  she,  in  her  great  love,  would 
believe  that  his  beins:  them  made  them  right !" 

As  she  spoke  the  last  word,  Mr.  Aster  laid  his  manly 
head  upon  her  shoulder,  and,  when  she  would  have  started 
away,  bound  her  to  the  back  of  the  chair  with  his  furzy 
blue  arms. 


LOVE   PATS   FOR  ALL.  383 

"  Be  calm  !  be  calm  !  or  you'll  muss  my  hair,"  he  said, 
in  hurried  accents. 

"  But  it  isn't  proper,  Cousin  Jack,"  she  pleaded,  strug- 
gling and  palpitating. 

"  Will  you  be  quiet !"  thundered  Aster,  greatly  dis- 
turbed by  the  unnatural  motion  given  to  his  head. 

"  Oh,  suppose  Pa  should  come  in  !" 

"  The  dog  would  make  him  wish  he  had'nt,  then !" 
hissed  the  ex-drayman,  simultaneously  kissing  her  pink 
ear. — "  But  cease  your  clamor  and  listen  to  me.  I  am 
aware,  Lucy,  of  all  that  you  have  done  to  secure  my  for- 
giveness for  my  well-meaning  but  misguided  father,  and 
am  determined  that  you  shall  be  rewarded  as  you  de- 
serve. In  my  letter,  and  in  what  I  recently  said,  I  was 
sounding  you  to  find  out  whether  you  were  calculated  to 
make  me  happy,  and  you  have  stood  the  test  creditably. 
Can  you  guess,  now,  the  reward  1  would  offer  ?" 

The  trembling,  blushing  blonde  made  another  faint 
struggle  to  get  away  from  his  head,  but  attempted  no 
audible  answer. 

"  I  offer  you  Myself !"  he  cried,  fairly  raising  her, 
chair  and  all,  from  the  ground,  in  the  impetuousness  of 
his  crushing  embrace.  "  Yes,  Lucy !  I  have  loved  you 
ever  since  that  night  when  I  came  here  to  pay  Lardner 
for  the  scratched  carriage ;  and  now  repay  all  your  noble 
championship  of  me  in  my  adversity  by  giving  Myself 
to  you  at  last.  Oh,  my  darling !  my  darling !  I  thought 
when  I  entered  this  room  to-day  that  this  dog  before  us 
was  dearer  to  me  than  aught  else  on  earth,  but  You  are 
dearer  to  me  even  than  he." 

For  an  instant  she  caught  her  breath  and  turned  awful- 
ly pale;  then  allowed  her  head  to  sink  upon  his,  and 
sighed,  like  a  weary  child  at  rest. 


384:  LOVE   PAYS    FOR   ALL. 

"  Speak  !"  he  said,  impatiently ;  "  Yes,  or  No." 

What  answer  she  made,  and  how  stringently  she  qualified 
it  with  the  contingency  of  Pa's  assent,  or  dissent,  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  Mr.  Aster,  taking  her  head  be- 
tween his  hands  as  though  it  were  an  awkward  pitcher,  at 
once  applied  her  rosy  mouth  to  his  and  drank  deep  and 
frequently. 

Finally,  after  the  wildest  of  these  intoxicating  draughts 
were  over,  and  the  generous  ex-drayman,  with  an  arm 
about  her  wraist,  drew  Lucy  so  closely  to  him  that  the 
farther  legs  of  her  chair  were  in  the  air,  the  former  spoke 
again  : 

"  Lucy,  the  mouth  is  a  blessed  feature,  as  I  have  just 
proved  to  you ;  but  I  have  found  far  more  virtue  in  an- 
other portion  of  the  face  for  helping  a  man  through  life." 

"  And  that  is—  ?" 

Jack  Aster  solemnly  raised  his  disengaged  hand,  and  si- 
lently pointed  with  the  forefinger  thereof  to  his — Cheek. 

Thus,  sitting  lovingly  together,  in  the  full  glow  of  the 
firelight,  with  the  dog  gazing  gravely  at  them  over  his 
tongue,  and  the  buckskin  horse  shivering  outside  in  terror 
of  the  approaching  Lardner,  these  lovers  and  their  sur- 
roundings fade  from  us  into  the  spectral  ranks  of  millions 
thus  wooing  and  won  before,  and  are  but  shadows  of  those 
who  will  wroo  and  be  won  again. 


AND    DOWN    COMES    THE    CURTAIN.  385 


XLV. 

AND   DOWN    COMES   THE   CURTAIN. 

THE  toy-store,  denuded  of  its  holiday  evergreens  and 
replenished  in  stock,  wore  the  staid  aspect  of  regu- 
lar yearly  business  once  more  ;  and,  although  the  old  faces 
were  generally  supplanted  by  those  of  the  Skeggs  family, 
the  name  on  the  sign  and  the  poetical  fame  of  the  concern 
still  attracted  a  custom  given  to  no  other  place  of  the  kind 
on  that  side  of  town.  It  may  be  remarked,  indeed,  that 
the  freezing  manner  of  Miss  Skeggs  shortly  became  a  very 
powerful  commendation  of  the  store  to  the  very  sex  against 
whose  would-be  familiarity  as  purchasers  her  most  icy 
hauteur  was  directed ;  for  the  ladies  (as  this  proved)  can 
never  be  treated  affably  themselves  by  a  female  clerk, 
without  an  immediate  instinctive  suspicion  that  she  must 
be  "  a  bold,  forward  thing  "  to  all  masculine  customers, 
and  reserve  their  heartiest  approval  for  those  extremely 
chilly  clerkesses  of  the  millinery,  cloak-bazaar,  fancy  bak- 
ery, etc.,  who  humor  their  custom  with  the  least-disguised 
contempt.  Consequently,  the  contemptuous  Miss  Skeggs, 
after  pledging  the  clerkly  services  of  herself  and  brother 
to  the  house  of  Dapple  for  a  year,  became  a  profitable  at- 
traction for  the  business,  which  she  literally  sneered  into 
unbounded  womanly  favor. 

It  is  not  with  the  store,  however,  that  we  have  to  do  on 
this  occasion,  but  with  the  room  of  the  Walking  Doll ; 
where,  on  the  same  afternoon  celebrated  in  the  last  Chap- 
ter, the  Dapples   entertained   a  guest  who,  since  New 
17 


386  AND   DOWN   COMES    THE   CURTAIN. 

Year's  Day,  had  been  quite  familiar  there.  Four  they 
were  altogether  :  the  Toyman,  very  wiiite  and  gaunt  still, 
but  placid  of  countenance  and  manner,  in  an  easy  Boston- 
rocker  near  the  stove;  Mrs.  Dapple,  housewifely  and 
assiduous,  in  a  sewing-chair  close  beside  him  ;  Dollie,  just 
pale  enough  to  show  a  blush  brilliantly,  on  the  other  side 
of  her  father  ;  and  their  guest,  Philip  Aster,  standing  to 
face  the  three.  A  few  moments  before,  the  young  man  and 
the  maiden  had  come  in  together  from  another  room,  which, 
of  late,  had  been  used  as  the  family  parlor ;  and  Miss 
Dapple's  pretty  alternation  of  cheek-born  rose  and  lily,  as 
she  met  the  Toyman's  paternal  scrutiny,  and  her  step- 
mother's smiling  glance,  indicated  that  some  shy  and  del- 
icate subject  for  comment  had  entered  with  them. 

"  But  what  will  your  father  think  of  this,  Mr.  Philip  ?" 
asked  Geoffrey,  softly  patting  his  daughter's  hand  as  it 
rested  on  the  arm  of  his  chair,  but  addressing  his  look  to 
the  young  lover. 

"  I  have  told  him  our  story — Dollie's  and  mine,"  re- 
plied Philip,  with  the  least  shade  of  embarrassment  in  his 
manner,  "  and  he — did  not  object.  In  fact,  Mr.  Dapple, 
my  father  is  so  intent  upon  another  matter,  that  we,  his 
sons,  have  but  little  more  than  passive  attention  from 
him.  He  will  object  to  nothing  we  may  do  for  ourselves, 
provided  it  be  but  honest  and  reputable ;  but  for  anything 
more  demonstrative  than  tacit  assent,  we  must  wait  until 
time,  and  the  restoration  of  her  whom  he  certainly  loves 
beyond  all  the  world,  have  brought  back  something  of  his 
old  self.  Then,  I  am  sure,  he  will  be  proud  of  such  a 
daughter,  as  I,  with  the  consent  of  yourself  and  Mrs.  Dap- 
ple, hope  to  secure  for  him  to-day." 

Now  that  the  former  double  and  aggravation  of  Jack 
Aster  no  longer  wore  big  hat,  eyeglasses,  and  cloak,  lie 


AND   DOWN   COMES    THE   CUETAIN.  387 

seemed  a  handsome,  pleasant-looking  young  fellow  enough, 
and  talked  and  acted  like  any  other  American  Christian. 

"And  you,  Dollie,"  said  the  old  man,  turning  again  to 
her,—"  you  are  willing  to  leave  your  father  for  the  sake 
of  this  gentleman  V* 

"  Not  if  you  want  me  to  stay,"  whispered  Dollie,  rais- 
ing her  hand  to  his  shoulder,  and  bowing  her  curly  head 
upon  it  in  a  pretty,  bashful  way. 

"  Now  that  Geoffrey  has  me  to  take  care  of  him,"  said 
Mrs.  Dapple,  smiling  tenderly  at  her  husband,  "  he  can 
afford  to  be  generous.  If  he  could  not,  I  should  have 
good  reason  to  charge  myself  with  being  no  worthier  as 
a  wife,  nor  kinder  as  a  stepmother,  than  before  the  right- 
eous penalty  of  my  own  unworthiness  taught  me  how 
much  I  had  forfeited,  and  made  me  a  humble,  wiser,  and, 
I  hope,  a  better  woman." 

"  Say  no  more  of  that,  my  dear  Lydia,"  answered  the 
Toyman,  quickly.  "  The  old  time  has  passed  away  with 
the  mistakes  we  both  committed ;  and  in  the  new,  we 
have  reason  for  congratulation  and  thankfulness,  only.  I 
cam,  afford  to  be  generous,  Mr.  Philip ;  and  so  give  my 
assent  and  blessing  to  the  choice  my  daughter's  heart  has 
made." 

"And  it  is  a  generosity  of  which  neither  you  nor 
Dollie  shall  ever  find  me  wilfully  unworthy,"  cried  the 
lover,  grasping  his  extended  hand.  "  From  my  past  con- 
duct as  a  son  you  may  be  able  to  derive  but  little  confi- 
dence in  such  promises  as  I  might  offer  at  this  time ;  but 
what  your  daughter  has  been  to  you  shall  serve  as  a  guar- 
antee of  the  good  work  her  precious  love  may  achieve  in 
me.  Now  let  me  make  a  confession  to  you,  Sir,  regard- 
ing that  window  curtain  yonder." 

The  Toyman  stared  at  him  in  mute,  almost  fearful  sur- 


388  AND   DOWN    COMES   THE   CURTAIN. 

prise  ;  Dollie  kept  her  head  down,  as  before,  and  Mrs. 
Dapple  turned  pale  and  breathless. 

"  Before  I  went  to  the  war,"  continued  Philip,  "  and 
while  yet  I  was  known  to  Dollie  as  John  Aster,  I  came 
here  on  a  stealthy  visit  to  her  one  day,  during  your  tem- 
porary absence,  Sir,  and  entrusted  to  her  care  a  Will  made 
by  my  Father  before  his  second  marriage,  and  which  I  had, 
in  my  boyish  folly  brought  with  me  in  my  flight  from 
home,  as  a  means  of  ultimately  contesting  such  mercenary 
schemes  as  I  believed  that  my  Stepmother  was  insidiously 
plotting." 

"  I  never  heard  of  this  before,"  said  the  Toyman, 
gravely. 

u  You  did  not ;  because  I  implored  Dollie  to  tell  no 
living  soul  of  the  trust ;  assuring  her  that  its  discovery 
might,  under  Mrs.  Aster's  influence,  prove  my  destruc- 
tion. I  am  now  sincerely  ashamed  of  my  action,  have 
asked  the  pardon  of  my  afflicted  father  for  it,  and  shall 
return  the  document  to  him  after  regaining  it  from  the 
curious  hiding  place  in  which  Dollie  left  it — that  window- 
curtain." 

With  an  excitement  of  manner  which  forbade  further 
immediate  speech  from  anybody,  Mrs.  Dapple,  at  this  se- 
cond mention  of  the  curtain,  went  hurriedly  to  the  door 
leading  into  the  store,  and  requested  Algernon  Skeggs  to 
bring  in  the  old  shelf-ladder,  and  place  it  in  the  window. 
This  done,  and  the  wondering  clerk  dismissed  to  his 
counter  again,  the  agitated  woman  spoke  thus : 

"  I  have  not  moved  that  curtain  before,  Geoffrey  ;  bo- 
cause,  in  doing  so,  I  must  reveal  what  I,  too,  hid  within 
it.  I  have  been  putting  it  off  from  day  to  day,  from  hour 
to  hour ;  but  now  the  memento  of  my  own  miserable 
follv  must  be  brought  to  light  at  last." 


AND   DOWN    COMES   THE   CURTAE*.  389 

She  was  ascending  the  ladder,  as  she  concluded ;  and, 
disregarding  the  amazed  Philip's  hesitating  proffer  of 
help,  had  her  hand  upon  the  red  and  dusty  roll  of  cur- 
tain in  a  moment. 

Slowly  untwining  the  twisted  and  festooned  masses  of 
faded  drapery,  from  which,  at  almost  the  first  movement, 
a  folded  paper  fell,  she  gradually  relieved  the  sustaining 
rod,  of  its  burden ;  and,  descending  the  ladder,  as 
the  curtain  unrolled  toward  the  floor  to  her  handling, 
suddenly  stepped  from  the  last  rung  with  the  long- 
lost  original  clock-work  of  the  Walking  Doll  in  her 
hand ! 

"  It  was  while  hiding  This,  Geoffrey,"  she  said,  "  that 
I  fell  and  was  so  nearlv  killed." 

As  the  old  Toyman  received  it  from  her  trembling 
hold,  his  shaggy  brows  contracted,  as  with  pain,  for  an 
instant ;  then  relaxed  into  such  a  look  of  exultation  as  his 
face  had  not  known  before  for  years. 

"  Why,  here's  the  quicksilver  balance  working  as  it 
should  again  !"  he  exclaimed,  in  a  strong,  joyous  voice. 
"  What  has  ailed  me,  all  this  while  ?  Here's  the  true  bal- 
ance !     I  shall  make  the  doll  Walk,  yet !" 

Dollie,  standing  behind  his  chair  as  on  the  night  when 
he  brought  home  the  watch,  smoothed  his  forehead,  too, 
as  then,  with  her  lulling  hands. 

"  Will  you  finish  it  now.  Father  ?"  she  asked  softly ; 
the  while  her  lover,  with  the  recovered  Will  hidden  in  his 
coat,  passed  an  arm  about  her  waist. 

u  I  shall  try,  I  shall  try,"  was  the  answer.  "  All  has 
been  a  dream  with  me  since  I  held  this  before.  A  strange, 
wild,  awful  dream." 

"  In  that  dream,  Father,  there  was  one  who  wronged 
you ;  whom  you  hated  as  an  enemy :  who  strove  to  atone 


390  AND   DOWN    COMES   THE   CURTAIN. 

for  the  wrong,  and  was  our  friend  at  last.     Now  that 
you  dream  no  longer,  dear  Father,  can  you  forgive  him  ?" 

Rising  and  turning  in  the  chair  until  he  could  see  her 
face,  Geoffrey  Dapple  gazed  at  her  intently,  with  a 
sobering  memory  coming  in  thoughtful  shadow  over  his 
own  countenance. 

"  Did  he  forgive  me  T\  he  asked. 

"  He  was  tender  with  your  dreaming  to  the  last," 
said  Dollie,  "  and  left  us  with  a  wisli  that,  in  your 
waking,  you  should  forgive  him." 

"  Then,"  cried  the  Toyman,  earnestly,  "  he  is  not  the 
Enemy  I  saw  in  my  dream,  and  shall  be  remembered 
only  as  my  own  accusing  Conscience ! " 


In  overhauling  the  standing-desk  upon  which  so  many 
poetical  placards  had  been  written,  Algernon  Skeggs  one 
day  found  this  rhymed  effusion — evidently  intended  to 
advertise  a  line  of  jumping-jacks  : — 

Ere  on  the  Toy-store,  friends,  you  turn  your  backs, 
Give  one  last  moment  to  the  Jumping-Jacks, 
And  say  if  ever  words  of  mouth,  or  pen, 
Described  such  puppet-parodies  of  men. 
Mark  how  extravagant  their  forms  and  hues  ; 
See  how  their  motions  mind  the  strings  you  use  ; 
And  how,  with  arms  uplift,  or  kicking  legs, 
One  Half  defies  you,  and  the  other  begs  ! 
Not  all  through  Fancy's  wildest  realm  you'll  find 
Such  strange,  distorted  burlesques  of  Mankind  ; 
Yet  human  nature,  pruned  and  stript  to  core, 
Is  oft  a  Jumping- Jack,  and  nothing  more  ! 
|       Behold  the  strutting,  self-conceited  gull, 

Whose  Pride's  the  string  for  ev'ry  knave  to  pull  : 


AND   DOWN   COMES   THE   CURTAIN.  391 

Behold  tho  sleek,  self-righteous,  Godly-wise, 

Who  lures  and  spurns  you  with  the  self-same  cries  : 

Behold  the  swag' ring  Fool,  or  Sage,  of  chance, 

By  mere  string-pulling  made  to  preach,  or  dance. 

None  need  go  far  on  such  extremes  to  fall, 

For  each  contains  some  essence  of  them  all. 

And  if  from  each  his  mere  Pretence  were  torn, 

And  only  his  true  character  were  worn,— 

In  all  that's  odd,  extravagant,  grotesque  ; 

In  all  that  gives  true  instinct  to  burlesque  ; 

In  all  that,  save  in  outward  hues,  is  dull, 

And  does  but  answer  to  the  string  you  pull, — 

He  e'en  might  prove,  compared  with  this  you  scan, 

That  Man's  the  Jumping-Jack,  and  Jack  the  Man  ! 


THE   END. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below, 
or  on  the  date  to  which  renewed.  Renewals  only: 

Tel.  No.  642-3405 
Renewals  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  date  due. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


DAVIS 
IN-TERUBRARY  LOAN 


MAR  7  7  1372 


APR  1  8  1996 


2n 
-0- — i 


rnoii    <nr»«'7i  General  Library 


Newel.  1.  R 
The  walki 


ing  doll 


1Q* 


-H^ 


CI   30 


955 

N546 

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, 


M2H<f/ 


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THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


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